IDNO

P.96649.WIL

Description

On Cech’s list describing prints:
“F. W. became Political Officer in Sikkim on January 4th, 1933.
(Photos 53-75: in and around Paro MPOW: 70-73)
69. “Dances at Paro guest-house 25.6.33”
See gi: paro
69c/d/e/f/g/h/i. “Sword dance”. This is the “khri-ging” dance.” [printed text]
For more information see Cech’s list.

Place

S Asia; Bhutan; Paro

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Williamson, Frederick

Collector / Expedition

Date

25 June 1933

Collection Name

Williamson Collection

Source

Williamson, Margaret

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Context: The (chams) sacred dances of Bhutan are spiritual energies manifested through the skill of the monks who perform them. The endurance, acrobatic skills, mindfulness and dedication of these dancing monks makes these dances a form of meditation. But, as one young disciple commented, “If you don’t use your mind to imagine and your heart to feel these dances, you will just see a group of monks simply jumping and swirling in the air.” [Dawa Dem 16/9/2008]

The transcription of this album by Mark Turin and Sara Shneiderman was carried out with reference to Krystina Cech’s catalogue list alone. Alex Nadin has since revised their cataloguing by systematically matching their records to the images. Margaret Williamson’s handwritten captions for photographs have now been transcribed into the Inscription field, and Cech’s descriptions appear in the Description field. Correct entries for Place, Named Person and Other Nos. have also been entered by Alex Nadin. [Sudeshna Guha 29/10/2002]

Publication: The photograph has been digitised for the European Collected Library of Artistic Performance (ECLAP) and is accessible on the portal http://www.eclap.eu/drupal/. [SG 31/10/2012]