What is a tshechu?

A tshechu is a recurring religious festival in honour of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava), with cham (masked dances) on each of its days. Guru Rinpoche introduced Vajrayana Buddhism across the Himalayas in the 8th century. Tshechus are tied to the religious calendar and commemorate his deeds and teachings. They are among Bhutan’s most important religious and social occasions, held in dzongs (fortresses) and monasteries across the country.

The name

Tshechu means “tenth”, after the tenth day of a lunar month. According to tradition, the tenth day is auspicious because Guru Rinpoche promised to return on the tenth day of each lunar month.

The name does not fix a festival’s date. Lunar dates differ from festival to festival. Paro Tshechu falls on the eleventh to fifteenth days of the second Bhutanese month, and Haa Tshechu on the eighth to tenth days of the ninth. Not every tshechu follows a moving lunar date, and Druk Wangyel Tshechu keeps a fixed Gregorian date.

Tshechus are often described as falling throughout the year because the lunar month varies by district. How festival dates are set explains why the dates move from year to year.

What happens

A tshechu runs for several days, commonly three to five depending on the district. Each day brings cham, with folk dances between them. Monks and lay members of the community perform the dances.

A tshechu dramatises the triumph of Buddhism over negative forces. Watching the dances is itself considered to earn merit and bring blessing.

Families come in their finest traditional dress: the kira (women’s dress) and the gho (men’s dress). A tshechu brings people together across social hierarchies to make merit and to keep the community going.

Masked clowns

Atsara (masked clowns) work the crowd between dances. They mix comedy with crowd control and spiritual encouragement. They also assist the dancers and entertain the public. Their name comes from the Sanskrit acarya (“philosophy master”).

Giant appliqué scrolls

A thongdrel (a giant appliqué scroll) usually shows Guru Rinpoche surrounded by holy beings. Its name translates as “liberation on sight”. Viewing it is believed to confer blessing and cleanse negative karma.

Some festivals are often described as holding a thongdrel display on their final day. At some festivals, the thongdrel is shown before dawn and rolled up before direct sunlight reaches it.

Cham

Cham are sacred ritual dances. The dancers wear brocade costumes and carved, painted masks.

Cham work as a “moving mandala”, a perfect universe represented through the dancers’ bodies. Each dancer visualises a deity and embodies it, repeating its actions and taking on its qualities.

Cham fall broadly into three groups: dances of subjugation, dances of victory and dances that teach a moral. Their purposes are to subdue negative forces, give moral instruction, pass on teaching, bless those watching and prepare them for death and what follows it.

Cham are a traditional medium of information, used to teach doctrine.

Some of the dances

Among the recurring dances is the fierce Black Hat dance.

In Raksha Mangcham (the Judgement of the Dead), the Lord of Death conducts the trial of a soul and weighs its good and bad deeds. The dance shows what awaits after death.

Guru Tshengye (the Eight Manifestations of Guru Rinpoche) presents the manifestations in dance.

Drametse Ngacham

Drametse Ngacham (the Mask Dance of the Drums from Drametse) comes from a vision of Guru Rinpoche’s paradise. Kunga Gyaltshen, a descendant of Pema Lingpa (1450–1521), had the vision at the monastery of Drametse in eastern Bhutan.

Sixteen masked men dance it, to a ten-man orchestra of cymbals, trumpets and drums. A calm section of peaceful deities alternates with a rapid section of wrathful deities.

UNESCO proclaimed Drametse Ngacham a Masterpiece in 2005 and inscribed it on the Intangible Cultural Heritage Representative List in 2008.