TITLE: Raksha Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Asia
COUNTRY: Bhutan
ETHNICITY: Ngalop
DESCRIPTION: Raksha Mask
CATALOG ID: ASBT001
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Bardo Cham Dance
FUNCTION: Celebration; Protection/Purification
AGE: ca. 1970s
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: paint; dyed silk
Tshechus are annual religious festivals held in Bhutan, scheduled in different months depending on the region. Cham dance, an important part of the celebration, is a classical masked ritual performed mostly by Himalayan Buddhist monks. Each mask and costume signifies a god, demon, human or animal spirit, or clown that entertains as it instructs in religious history, mythology, and morality, frequently based on stories from the lives of Buddhist masters. The dance is performed to traditional Himalayan music played by monks.
This mask represents Raksha, a bull-like character who plays an important role in dances that purify the village and temple of evil spirits and protect them from bad omens. In the Bardo Cham dance, he leads a large group of animal characters (whose identities differ slightly in different Bhutanese towns) in helping the lord of the underworld, Shinjé Chögyel, to judge a hunter who has sinned against Buddhist beliefs by killing animals.
