The Big Puja: Lama Dance Day (2/2)

Welcome back everyone, I hope you all had a good snack. Did it make you sleepy? Well, I've got the perfect thing for that...

Firecrackers! And tricksters! Hopefully that woke you up. Now we can continue. These guys represent the winds that flow through all of us, the red are female and the white are male. If that didn't illuminate much for you, well, we're in the same boat. But aren't they cool looking?

This next is the old man dance. I never got much of an explanation for it, but I love the mask. And make sure you blow up that picture, because what is that umbrella covered with? Peacock feathers. It's completely covered in peacock feathers. This refers back to a legend that peacocks eat poisons, and the more they eat the brighter their colors will get. Metaphorically, therefore, peacock feathers represent overcoming the five spiritual poisons (see the last post), and making something beautiful out of this samsaric life.  

Next up was a break from the ceremonial dancing, with Chinese dances intended just for entertainment purposes. This is more of the legacy of the Karmapas' close relationship with the emperors of China, and not something you would see at non-Kagyu monasteries.

(monks leaping about!)

(monks dressed up as white tigers!)

(a monk backflipping over monks dressed as a white tiger!)

After the white tiger dance was an acrobatic display by a monk skilled in Chinese acrobatics and martial arts. 

(backflipping off a post!)

(jumping into a forward roll. note the fact that all of the monks behind him are taking pictures with their phones)

The next dance was the most important of the day, involving a very precious statue of Guru Padmasambavha (Guru Rimpoche), along with monks dressed as his other emanations, as well as the Buddha and other important spiritual figures.

(the front of the procession. the man at the side in the fringe-y hat is apparently the most skilled diviner at the monastery)

(horns, heralding the emergence of the statue)

(the precious statue, followed by the other emanations)

The procession led out to a semi-circular arrangement of fancy chairs, so that the emanations and other important figures could sit for the next part and last part.

This was reenactments of all of the ritual dances that had happened previously, in shortened form, for the statue. 

After the dances, laypeople came forward to present the statue with white scarves, which serve (like the water offerings from an earlier post) to stand in for other offerings (in this case, they stood in for the flowers that are offered to honored guests). They also presented the statue, and the monks around the statue, with monetary offerings. 

When all of the lay people who wished to had presented prayers and offerings, the procession picked up and reentered the prayer hall. And the dance was over. 

But this wasn't the end of the week's events, or even (despite the costumes, masks, and acrobatics) the most well attended of them. That was to come the next day, with the long life empowerment.