The Peling Gingsum (དགྲ་མེད་རྩེ་རྔ་འཆམ་) is popular sacred cham, or dance, performed during numerous Bhutanese festivals. The Gingsum is constituted of four distinct dances: a preliminary part and three main dances. Together, the dances are an enactment of evil, embodied by the damsri spirit, being subdued by divine forces that appear in the forms of wrathful deities and animal-headed deities. The four phases of the dance last about three hours and is normally performed together as a full set, although sometimes the last part is performed separately.

Origin

The Peling Gingsum dances represent a tantric practice of ritual slaying or drolwa (སྒྲོལ་བ་). In Vajrayāna Buddhism, evil forces that cannot be pacified through peaceful methods are forcibly subjugated using externally wrathful and fierce methods, all of which are ultimately motivated by inner compassion. Ritual slaying of an evil force is only employed with the force cannot be redeemed through other measures and is considered an enemy with ten heinous factors (ཞིང་བཅུ་ཚང་བའི་དགྲ་). By stopping the evil force, it is prevented from generating additional negative karma, and the consciousness of the evil being is transferred to a higher realm of existence through the power of the tantric priest. Thus, any tantric priest who carries out such a ritual killing must possess advanced spiritual powers and undertake the practice with full awareness of the empty nature of phenomena.

The Peling Gingsum dances are said to have been created by Bhutan’s famous Buddhist master and treasure discoverer, Pema Lingpa (1450-1521), who encountered the dances during a series of visionary experiences. Through this connection the dances are known as the Three Ging Dances of the Pema Lingpa Tradition. The word ging (གིང་), derived from Sanskrit kingkara, refers to a specific category of spiritual beings who are messengers of the wrathful heruka Buddha. They are generally portrayed as skeletal and agile beings. The Peling Gingsum is composed of a preliminary dance performed by a damsri spirit, followed by a trilogy of dances performed by figures representing the ging.

Damsri Nyulema Dance

The Damsi Nyülléma (དམ་སྲི་ཉུལ་ལེ་མ་) Dance represents the ultimate evil, and epitomizes the problems of existential ego and ignorance. Damsi (དམ་སྲི་) refers to malicious spirits who are particularly associated with the violation of righteous precepts and nyüllé (ཉུལ་ལེ་) references roaming negative spirits. Thus, the dance of Damsi Nyüllé symbolizes negative forces, the primary of which is one’s ignorance and mistaken notion of self. That evil is portrayed by a skinny, erratic figure wearing a skull mask, a tiger patterned skirt and a sheep skin, and wielding a stick. The character performs acts of stupidity and torpor to indicate his ignorance, lascivious and pornographic acts to indicate his attachments and lust, and acts of aggression to indicate his hatred and anger. The dance is generally performed by a young man whose movements are regulated by a small cymbal played by the umdze preceptor.

The Juging Dance

The first of the three ging dances is the Juging (རྒྱུག་གིང་), in which dancers hold jugpa (རྒྱུག་པ་) or sticks. The dancers wear animal-headed masks and are dressed in leopard-patterned trousers and multi-coloured silk cloths for their lower garments and a dorjé gong (རྡོ་རྗེ་གོང་) shoulder cover; they are otherwise bare-chested, and perform barefoot. They hold a jugpa to symbolically pointing out the nyüllé's life force. A triangular container called homkhung (ཧོམ་ཁུང་) is placed in the center of the courtyard, and is used to trap the evil force. The dance’s timing is regulated by the umdze’s playing of a large pair of cymbals. There are three main parts to the Juging: first, analyzing where the evil nyüllé force is located; secondly, pursuing the nyülléma; and lastly, realizing that the true evil force resides within in the minds of sentient beings. This realization is demonstrated when eventually one of the lead dancers point the stick inward towards his own body.

The Driging Dance

The Driging, or Sword Dance, is the second of the three ging dances. In it, dancers wear wrathful masks and hold a dri (གྲི་) sword and skull cup (བཉྫ་) in their hands. As in the Juging, dancers wear leopard-pattern trousers under multi-coloured silk cloths as their lower garments and the dorjé gong shoulder cover. The Driging dance is also constituted of three main movements: firstly, slaying evil forces; secondly, chopping their carcasses; and finally, subduing and liberating the consciousness of those evil forces so that they are no longer gripped by negative emotions and impulses. They begin the symbolic slaying process by assembling at the centre over the humkhung container, which is believed to have trapped the nyülléma’s essential force. Like the Juging, the pace of the Driging dance is regulated through the cadence of the umdze’s cymbal playing.

The Ngaging Dance

The last of the three ging dances is the Ngaging, or Drum Dance. In it, the dancers perhaps unsurprisingly hold a cham drum, which signifies the sound of wisdom, and a drumstick, representing compassion. The sound that reverberates from the drum is the sound of dharma, which can dispel the ignorance and suffering of sentient beings. Ideally, the dancers perform this dance with a spirit of joy, loving kindness, and compassion.

The Ngaging embodies the joy felt by the righteous forces after their successful defeat of the nyülléma spirit. Thus, the dance movements reflect the celebratory mood. The costuming is the same as in the Juging and Driging. During festivals, Ngaging can be performed by monks, lay priests, or by ordinary young men. This particular dance is also performed separate from the other two in schools or at other gatherings to provide a sample of Bhutanese mask dance.

Said to have been originally created by Pema Lingpa in Bumthang as a sacred tantric dance to liberate evil forces, the dance is today performed at most major festivals and also taught at the Royal Academy of Performing Arts (RAPA) as part of the core curriculum. Besides being fine examples of Bhutanese performing arts, to faithful spectators, the Gingsum is believed to have sacred and liberative value.

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.