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Mongolian
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Tsam Religious Dance
 TSAM-RELIGIOUS
DANCE
The ancient religious mask dance, or Tsam, is
a significant religious ritual which reflects Buddhist teachings
through images. It is a theatrical art performed by skilled
dancers wearing magnificently ornamented costumes, which represent
characters of different holy figures and devils, animals,
and people.
Through story, music, and dance, the wide range
of personalities of the characters are depicted. To symbolize
positive and negative attributes, characters from popular
stories, and animals such as the Khangarid (lord of flies),
lion (the king of wild animal), stag (the beauty among animals),
crow (the soothsayer) and various domestic animals are immitated.
Furthermore, the colors and decoration of the costumes are
clues as to the nature of the personalities of the characters.
Tsam mask dancing is included in the art form
called "Doigar," which embodies independent imagination,
one of the ten kinds of wisdom according to ancient Indian
philosophy. The Tsam dance ceremony was first introduced to
Mongolia in the 8th century, when the famous Indian Saint
Lovon Badamjunai was invited to Mongolia to sanctify the construction
of the first Tibetan Buddhist temple, Samya. From that time,
the Tsam dance was performed following the traditional teaching
of Nyambdeyan, and during the 16th century, it became popular
in Dash-Ihum temple Uigien Namjra and other places. Eventually,
more than 500 monasteries of the 700 Mongolian monasteries
had their own local variations of the ceremony.
There were two kinds of
tsam dances. "Mil Bogdo" Talking Tsam died out,
but the Geser tsam, famous for its elaborately rich decorations,
remained. An example of the Geser tsam was the most popular
tsam in Mongolia, the "Jahar tsam " or "Erleg
Nomun Khan Tsam." It was first performed in 1811, and
told the story of how the disciple Yamandag destroyed the
aggressive Erlegs' mettalic citadels, thus taming them.
In "Khuree Tsam"
or the "Tsam of the Erleg Nomun Khan," a total of
108 costumes we worn, including 21 diciples and dieties, such
as Congor, Namsrai, Combo, Ochirvaany, Jamsran, Lham, and
Damdinchoijoo. This tsam was staged every year on the 9th
day of the last summer month, and was an important ceremony.
The person who choreographed
the first tsam dance after the establishment of Erdene-Zuu
monastery in Kharkhorin (Chinggis Khaan's capital city)
was a Mongolian. Folk art and native wisdom played an important
role in the production of the individual Tsam dances. Song
and dance, music, decorative arts, and other kinds of folk
art are included in the Tsam ceremony.
Despite the fact that the Mongolian
Tsam dance was based on Indian folk art and was popularized
in Tibet, it was highly developed in Mongolia. For this reason
the Mongolian-Tibetan tsam dance, the Geser and Nomun Khan
fancy-dress tsam, and Mil Bogdo's Talking Tsam will have a
permanent position in the history of the world's theater arts.
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