Question

art and culture unifies sikkim eassy​

Answer 1

Answer:

Sikkim's famous mask dances are simply spectacular. Chaams are performed on ceremonial and festive occasions. Though these dances differ from one another in style and theme, but they all deal with the triumph of good over evil. Their origin lies in a dancing cult for exorcising malignant demons and human enemies. The Chaams performed during the new year ceremony expel evil from the land, while closing the old year and ushering in benevolence and good luck for the new. The dancers wear fearful dragon, animal and bird masks, dress in richly brocaded costumes and tread the measure to the sound of cymbals and trumpets.The commencement of Chaam is announced from within the gompa by the steady drone of the kangling, an instrument like a trumpet. These notes are reciprocated by the deep muted thunder of the radong, long copper horns, blown from outside the gompa. Cymbals clash, and ceremonial drums and gongs sound in rhythmic unison and mark the start of the dance. Richly attired dancers file into the monastery courtyard and as they swirl in rich colour, incense bearers circulate among the audience, purifying the atmosphere. All this heralds the actual drama, whose principal figure is Mahakala, and it is his presence that invokes other protective deities. Elaborate costumes and masks are the hallmarks of the Dance of the Masquerades---Sha-Yak and Nam-Ding---where the dancers assume animal faces. Here, the masks of the stag, the yak, the tiger, the lion, the mythical winged garuda, walk in slow and measured steps, to the clash of cymbals and the sound of the trumpets, the dancers act out the destruction of apostasy symbolized by an effigy which is chopped to pieces and scattered. The scattered remains are not merely the annihilation of the diabolical forces, but they also constitute an offering, signifying the tantric union of wisdom, preaching and action and consecrated to the five Dhyani Buddhas.