Rakṣa Mangcham (རཀྵ་མང་འཆམ་) is a well-known semi-operatic dance-drama performed across Bhutan during most major festivals. It is also known as the dance of Shinjé Chögyel (གཤིན་རྗེ་ཆོས་རྒྱལ་), the Lord of Death, and sometimes as the dance of the bardo (བར་དོ་) or the dance of nyalwa (དམྱལ་བ་) or hell. The dance is believed to illustrate what awaits us after death, and is performed both for entertainment and as a moral message.
The dance-drama has its origins in the teachings of the bardo (བར་དོ་), or intermediate state, through the Bardo Tödröl (བར་དོ་ཐོས་གྲོལ་), which is often referred to in the West as The Tibetan Book of the Dead. This book forms part of the Zhithro teachings on the hundred peaceful and wrathful deities revealed by the treasure discoverer Karma Lingpa (b. 14th c.). A chapter of the Bardo Tödröl describes the experiences a dead person goes through after death but before their next rebirth, a phase known in the intermediate state, bardo.
The nearly day long performance is constituted of several chapters and begins with Rakṣa Gocham (རཀྵ་སྒོ་འཆམ་) or the Dance of the Rakṣa at the Door, in which the Rakṣa character and a monkey-faced attendant perform a dance. The Rakṣa mask represents the bull-faced chief messenger of death. In the main dance, some sixteen dancers take part, each wearing an animal-headed mask representing the various members of the retinue. As the main dance begins, the dancers are led in a procession by an incense bearer and young priests playing a drum, bell, conch shells, and oboes. The dancers are guided by an orchestra constituted primarily by a large cymbal and drums. Long horns are also blown at the opening and conclusion of the dance. The main part of the dance is a long piece and thus has intervals of rests when the dancers are tipped by the spectators or when a single dancer performs a solo dance.
About an hour into the main dance, the character representing the dark power makes an appearance in middle of the dancers. This character called Dré Nakchung (འདྲེ་ནག་ཅུང་) or Darkling Devil has a wrathful dark face with bulging eyes and a snarling fanged mouth, clad in a dark costume with animal skins, and draped with a garland of human skulls and a large garland of round bells. Each time he appears, he calls out to the animal-headed messengers with a frightening sound and they respond to him in kind. By the time he appears for the third time, he and the leading messengers of death (i.e., the bull faced, pig faced, monkey faced and snake faced figures) leave the dance ground in order to invite the Lord of Death. In their brief absence, the other dancers continue the performance.
On their return, the chief messengers accompany the Lord of Death, which is a large masked figure propped by a bamboo frame. A senior lama or priest plays this character. It has a fierce red face and wears silk monastic gowns and robes. It holds a prophetic tablet called thram shing (ཁྲམ་ཤིང་) that reveals the karmic accounting of sentient beings. From the right ear is stretched a white scarf; it represents the positive path and is connected to Lhakarpo (ལྷ་དཀར་པོ་), the divine force symbolized by a figure with white mask, white robes, and a prayer rosary. From the left ear flows a black scarf, which represents the dark negative path, connected to the dark devilish figure, Dré Nakchung. The Lord of Death is led by a long procession of singing girls, officials, and men shouting cries of jubilation, young women carrying all kinds of offering, priests playing various kinds of musical instruments and young boys holding assorted ceremonial flags and banners. The procession circles around the dance courtyard before the Lord of Death is installed amidst his attendants.
After the Lord of Death is settled, the dancers lead by the bull faced and the stag faced characters sit down in two rows, forming between them a sort of path leading to the Lord of Death. The Lord of Death then reads out a notice that a person has died in the world and should be traced. The bull face chief messenger responds to the Lord of Death and orders the snake faced character to look at his karmic mirror to check. The snake character reads out the details of the dead person and the messengers rush off to find the recently deceased. In the meantime, the rest of the dancers resume dancing. The messengers return with a figure called Dikchen Nyalbum (སྡིག་ཅན་དམྱལ་བུམ་), wearing a dark mask with pathetic expression. He wears a black gown and carries a sack containing bones of animals, beehives, a bow, and arrows. This figure also appears early during the dance and mixes with the spectators begging for money, which he keeps as a tip for playing this evil character. As part of his role, he enacts non-virtuous deeds such as hunting, fishing and capturing beehives.
When the recently deceased is brought forth, the dancers again sit in rows and the actions of the dark figure are judged by the divine and dark angels of death. He is threatened by Dré Nakchung and the other animal headed messengers and eventually lead him to hell. The Lord of Death then gives notice of another death. Following the same process, the messengers go to search for the deceased person and returns with a white-clad figure, who is carrying a religious book and holding a flag. This character is the householder Palké (ཁྱིམ་བདག་དཔལ་སྐྱེས་), a pious follower of the Buddha who has lived a virtuous life. Dré Nakchung, Lha Karpo and the messengers of death analyse his karmic records and, due to his virtuous life, Palké goes to heaven accompanied by beautiful celestial figures playing soothing music and chanting sacred mantras.
After the two sessions of judgement are over, The Lord of Death and the followers exit in a procession. The animal-masked dancers continue dancing and begin a gradual exit with the accompaniment of oboes, which herald the conclusion of the dance. The two lead dancers, the bull faced and the stag faced, remain resting, along the monkey faced, who continues to dance. The monkey faced character has as an important but free role throughout the dance. Sometimes, it joins the other dancers in choreographed movements but at other times, it goes around begging for alms from spectators. It accompanies the lead dancers, supporting them when they perform certain movements. In the concluding chapter, the monkey first accompanies the stag faced character in a serious of movements until the stag faced exits. Following this, the monkey dances with the bull faced character until both of them exit the stage and bring a closure to the long performance.
This long dance-drama is a popular open air theatrical performance watched with deep reverence in Bhutan. The story, with its few intelligible words, is easy to follow and its core moral message wherein positive actions yield good results and negative actions lead to karmic retribution is not lost on its audience. Traditional Bhutanese often make reference to this performance while talking about their own existential status and the course of karmic cycle they have to follow, and strive to live a virtuous life and follow the spiritual path through stimulation received from the dance-drama.
Karma Phuntsho is a social thinker and worker, the President of the Loden Foundation and the author of many books and articles including The History of Bhutan.