Treasure Dance--Full Dance, Bhutan Tsechu at Domkhar May 2011

The Treasure Dance is one of the more important and dramatic sounding festival dances in Bhutan. This video is several clips spliced together of the entire dance. The Treasure Dance was introduced into Bhutan in the early Middle Ages by a famous Buddhist treasure hunter, named Terton Pemalinga. His “treasures“ were relics holy to the Bhutanese that were, by legend, hidden centuries earlier by their most famous Buddhist saint, Guru Rimpoche. The red masks are meant to be terrifying to evil spirits, the blue masks show compassion. Festival dances are performed to ward off evil spirits and bad omens in the lives of the people watching and the surrounding vicinity. The Treasure Dance specifically targets evil ground spirits.