Daoerji

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Daoerji, Male, Mongolian, from Alashanmeng, Inner Mongolia, is a fourth-batch national representative bearer of Chama (Ⅲ-57). The tradition is documented in Alashanmeng, Inner Mongolia. Within the regional tradition and school record of Chama in Alashanmeng, Inner Mongolia: It is roughly divided into three dance forms, the praise dance, the joyous dance and the bird-and-beast dance, in which the 36 Chama gods are played by 36 performers. Chama was originally a primitive religious rite performed by Tibetan Buddhism in order to spread the Buddha's teachings, propagate doctrine, strengthen belief and ward off the temptations of evil; it gradually developed into a comprehensive religious art encompassing dance, music, poetry, painting, butter sculpture and puppetry. It entered Inner Mongolia along with the Yellow Sect founded by Tsongkhapa, and has been transmitted in Inner Mongolia for more than four hundred years. Over the more than two centuries from 1778 to 1960, the Chama of Guangzong Temple was never interrupted in the major temples of Alxa, and it produced a generation of Chama masters.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

As a boy he served as a lama at Guangzong Monastery in Alashan Left Banner, where he learned the traditional steps of the Chama dance from his master, mastered the matching of masks with costumes and the playing of Chama music, transmitted the traditional performance of the Chama dance in its entirety in the Alashan region, and collected and organized materials on Chama dance costume. From the 1990s he organized a dozen or so young lamas of Guangzong Monastery to learn the performance techniques of the Chama dance and the playing of its accompanying instruments, so that the original steps of the dance have been transmitted and continued at Guangzong Monastery. Within the documented technical tradition of Chama in Alashanmeng, Inner Mongolia: Chama involves movements such as jumping, singing, chanting and striking. It is first composed by apprentice lamas on the basis of the principles of the Buddhist scriptures, and can be performed in public only after it has been examined and approved by the tulku and the eminent monks. The "chama ben" is the opening dance of the Chama. The Chama performers wear gold ornaments and helmets and hold a variety of weapons; with the combat movements of "ninety-nine times eighty-one" they display the martial prowess of the Chama, carrying a strong atmosphere of battle and a heroic spirit. Then come the beast and bird dances and the phoenix dance and other dance sections imitating animals and birds or depicting the conditions of everyday life, and finally a comprehensive dance that carries the rite of sacrifice and the sending off of ghosts; with movements such as kicking, stamping, leaping, jumping and pounding of the feet, it produces a variety of crisp and intricate rhythms. In the great majority of temples within the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region the lamas perform the Chama once a year; its forms of presentation include three types, "Chama of the scripture hall", "Mile Chama" and "Chama of the public square". Square Chama is strongly danced, with fixed procedures, standardized movements and a large number of participants, and so it is more widely transmitted. Chama generally consists of 13 to 15 dance sections; within the Inner Mongolia region the Chama of Guangzong Temple, of Uxin Juu and of Xianghuangqi Banner are the most representative. The Chama of Guangzong Temple was created by the first tulku of Guangzong Temple in Alxa, Luosang Tudeng Jia Cuo; it is transmitted mainly in temples large and small throughout the Alxa region, and its purpose in performance is to ward off disaster and misfortune, to protect the safety of living beings, and to pray for the health and good fortune of the world. The Chama of Guangzong Temple has fourteen dance sections and takes 60 minutes to perform, and the whole dance is carried out along a circle. The dancers follow a strict order of appearance and each has a fixed position and a fixed set of movements, which may not be violated. The Chama band consists of fifteen people, of whom five play the music for welcoming the gods and ten provide the fixed accompaniment. In performance the methods are flexible and the variations are marked. The main instruments used by the band include two Dharma drums, two pairs of cymbals (tsang), two Dharma horns, two ganding pipes and four bixiguer pipes. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The fourteen sections of Guangzong Monastery Cham": The Cham of Guangzong Monastery, compiled by its first living Buddha, has fourteen sections lasting about an hour, danced along a circular line with fixed entrances and positions. "Cham-bon, the opening dance": Cham-bon opens the rite: dancers in gilded helmets wield weapons and execute the eighty-one combat movements of Cham. "Hall, Milarepa and courtyard Cham": Three forms of Mongolian Cham: the hall rite, the Milarepa cycle, and the courtyard Cham, which is the most dance-like and the most widely spread. "The Cham orchestra": The Cham orchestra numbers fifteen players and uses two ritual drums, two pairs of cymbals, two horns, two ganden and four bishigur.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Male, Mongolian ethnicity, born in October 1937 and deceased in February 2014, a native of Alashan Left Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. National representative bearer of Chama, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Daoerji · National Representative Bearer Archive