Gongkar Great Drum Dance

For the first time outside of Tibet and India, witness the grandeur of the Gongkar Choede Great Drum Dance, performed as part of A Tapestry of Sacred Music.  

With giant barrel drums strapped on their backs, Tibetan Buddhist monks skip and dance with sprightly steps, moving in a circle, whipping the drums behind them. Thunderous booms punctuate their footwork, amidst the clanking of ritual cymbals and blasts of giant horns. This dance is a rare sight to behold, as it is only performed once a year at the Great Prayer Gathering held at Gongkar Choede Monastery in Northern India. The only other time this dance is performed is at the Dalai Lama’s procession.  

Created by Dorjedenpa Kunga Namgyal (1432–1496), the Gongkar Choede Great Drum Dance (Nga Cham) was one of the many ritual dances associated with the Gongkar Choede Monastery, known as a major tantric study centre in Central Tibet. Following the total cultural transformation that took place with the exile of the Tibetan government in the mid-20th century, the monks eventually settled themselves in Uttarakhand, North India. There, the senior monks continued the ritual traditions that were in danger of fading away, passing them on to a new generation of Gongkar Choede monks.  

Today, this ritual dance remains an iconic display of Tibetan Buddhist culture, performed as an act of devotion to the Buddha. It carries the tantric intent of relieving the suffering of all beings, and grants spiritual protection. The practice was revived in the 1990s, thanks to oral instruction from a former practitioner. Physically fit monks are selected from the community to train for it, and it takes several years to master both the movements and music.