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    Peling Tsechu

    རི་བོ་ཇིཀྲུ་ཌེཀ
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    Peling Tsechu is an annual 3-day festival where hundreds of colorfully outfitted dancers enact dances composed by the renowned Bhutanese terton Pema Lingpa (1450–1521). Bhutanese revere Pema Lingpa as one of their greatest saints because he revealed and taught troves of treasure texts that helped the Nyingma School of Vajrayana Buddhism flourish in Bhutan. The dances tell the story. Bedecked in their finest ghos and kiras, spectators take in up to ten of the dances each day, breaking for lunch. The choreography is precise and formal — the dancers jump and turn just so, lifting their left legs in unison and setting them down before lifting their right legs at exact points in a dance. The great saint is conveying messages to witnesses all these centuries later — and by recreating the movements in unwavering fashion, the dancers keep the blessings intact. Through it all, cymbals crash, horns blast, and drums boom. A masked dance (cham) called Guru Tshengey, which acts out the eight manifestations of Guru Rinpoche, closes out every Peling Tsechu. After introducing Buddhism to Bhutan in the eighth century, Guru Rinpoche organized the country's first tsechu to re-enact his subjugation of local spirits and gods. One of the manifestations is a dark red wrathful form named Dorje Drolod ...

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