Bhudda Center and Teschu Dance Festival, Second Day - Lord of the Cremation Ground Dance, and the Dance of the Wrathful Deities

 Massive Buddha Statue in Bhutan at Kuensel Phodrang or Buddha Point in Thimpu

Stephanie and Jeanne at Buddha Point under a golden Apsara - 

one of the many manifestations of Bhutan's deeply esteemed Guru Rinpochi

Bhutanese people and Monks gather to hear the Buddhist Teachings at Buddha Point

Below a view of the Bhutanese crowd at the second day of the Teschu Festival.  We got there early for a front row seat. It was packed because of the beautiful sunny day.

Stephanie, Tashi Tobgay, our guide, and Jeanne

The Clowns are hilarious about the phallus.  Below a gem of a video. 

To see the video full screen just click on the lower right corner.  

I recommend viewing these dances on your computer full screen rather than your iphone.

Every morning there was this opening dance, but the steps seemed slightly different each day.

Below The Lords of Creation Grounds Dance

These four dancers have skull masks and gloves with long fingers.  They thrust their arms as if getting rid of evil spirits.  They bend back almost to the ground to liberate the spirits of the deceased.  The dance was composed by the Ngawang Namgyal and the dancers represent the protectors of the religion who live in the eight cremation grounds on the edges of the symbolic Mount Meru.  (This last sentence from my Lonely Planet Book)

Below the four dancers bring in a black cloth that contains the evil spirits of the deceased.

 

See their bending back moves in video below.

 

 The above video is of the Dance of the Wrathful Deities.

The deities are the entourage of one of the eight manifestations of Guru Rinpoche, Dorji Drolo.  Dori Drolo and his entourage are armed with phurba (special daggers) that execute and thereby redeem an evil spirit (represented by a small mannequin).  This represents Buddhist teachings on the liberation of consciousness from the body.  The dancers' costumes are once again, brocade dresses with frightening masks.  

This descriptive paragraph taken from my Lonely Planet book.

Below is a view of this dance from the top of the Fort's ampitheater.

Below a video of the beautiful Bhutanese people getting to their seats to enjoy the festival.