Chaam Dances at Pemayangtse Monastery

Remarkable photos taken today at the ritual Chaam Dances at Pemayangtse Monastery, West Sikkim, by Trent Lenz (you can see them on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3016454564705.2131879.1062819926&type=1) Trent shares:

Each year the monks of Pemayangtse dawn the colorful costumes and masks of dieties such as Mahakala and also the “devil” beings that we will see when we enter the bardo. The dances are meant to help familiarize us to what we will experience once our current hotel room (body) expires and we begin travelling through the bardos. In the west we focus on life and often think that anyone that thinks of death is somehow mentally unstable or macabe. The opposite is true, we all will face death someday and we do not know when that will come so the familiar we are with it we will not be filled with fear and attachment to our past life which will help us move upwards rather than being dragged down to the lower realms.