For the first time in Bombay, monks from the Menri Monastery of Bon to perform the "Black Hat Dance" during the inaugural day of the exhibition of photographs, thangkas by Li Gothami at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (Prince of Wales Museum of Western India), MG Road, Fort, Bombay on February 2, 2008. To know more, call: 9833191592 / 26409612 or email: support@friendsoftibet.org.
The Black Hat Dance: Most masked dances that can be seen today in the monasteries of the Tibet or Ladakh, contain complex religious and philosophical themes. How ever, these plays may derive from the ritual dances of Bon. Which were originally performed as means of venerating nature and protective deities and also as New Year celebrations? These last took place at the time of winter solstices; they celebrated the victory if the spring season with its fertility over the crippling season of winter.
The religious dimension of these dances is shown by the fact that they are performed in the monastery courtyards and by the fact that the masks, with the exception of the clown masks, may only be worn by monks. Since the Cham dances are the crowing conclusion of a ritual lasting several days. The actions, dance steps and movements of the protagonists are exactly prescribed. Masks that are inhabited during the dance by the more important protective deities are accordingly treated with great deference. They are kept in a special- usually dark-room, the gonkhang. Entry into this room is often prohibited to lay persons and women. Since these masks symbolize the divine presence, they are the object of regular ceremonies.
The black hat religious dance is also called the “dance of Tshog of mother tantra” forms a part of complex bonpo esoteric rituals which it self, like all other rituals of this type, is primarily conceived as a means of attaining spiritual realization. The dance is particularly connected with the cutting of the Tshog in the rite as indicated by its name. The Tshog is an offering to the tutelary divinities and literally means “assembly”. Its ingredients are parched barley flour, butter, cheese, dried fruit and Tibetan brewed ale. The dance therefore was not conceived in the beginning as a public spectacle and was attended only by the adepts who were performing the rituals. It was thus a totally private ritual. However, from about the fifteenth century it gradually became more public and formed a part of the annual festival along with other traditional religious dances in the monasteries.
Menri Monastery: The first Menri Monastery was built in the 14th century in Central Tibet. It remained the main monastery of Bon (The Bon Religion Bon is the ancient indigenous religion of Tibet. It was founded by Buddha Tonpa Shenrab eighteen thousand years ago in western Tibet and continues to the present day by an unbroken lineage.) and a premier centre of religious teaching and practice until the Chinese army destroyed it in 1959 and during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. During that time, many Tibetans fled to India as refugees. His Holiness the Menri Trizin, the 33rd Abbot of Menri Monastery, after many hardships reestablished the present Menri Monastery in exile at Tibetan Bonpo Settlement, Dolanji (near Solan), to preserve this unique and ancient tradition.
The monastery offers advance religious training in Dialectical Studies. The nine-year course of study includes philosophy, logic, poetics, astrology, medicine, ritual and meditation, and the languages of Zhang-Zhung and Sanskrit. The monks also studies and practices the Bon tradition of Sutra, Tantra and Zogchen. The training in Zogchen includes the highest meditation practices such as the dark retreat and the visionary practices. On the successful completion of the studies, the monks are awarded the Geshe Degree, the most advanced degree in the Tibetan religious traditions. Most of the Geshes become teachers, serving the educational needs of both the monastic and lay communities. Some of them enter meditation retreat after their studies or focus on rebuilding old monasteries or developing new Bon centre.
