Bhutanese Festival Mask
The Bhutanese festival mask is a carved and painted wooden face worn by dancers in the cham dances of Bhutanese monasteries, taking the forms of fierce deities, animals, black-hatted dancers and the skeleton guardians of the faith. The tradition of cham is said to have been brought to the Himalayan world by the teacher Padmasambhava, and the dances are performed in the courtyards of the dzongs during the yearly tsechu festivals, when onlookers gather to see the masked dancers turn in slow circles to drum and cymbal. Each mask follows strict iconographic rules, and the identities of the dancers