“I never say tantra,” explains 35th-generation Tantric Buddhist priest lineage-holder Shri Prajwal Vajracharya, “because people think it means sex and it doesn’t.” Tantra is an esoteric practice that emerged on the Indian subcontinent as early as the fifth to sixth centuries and is undoubtedly connected to archaic yogic practices of whole-body understanding and danced participation in essential reality—the very enlightened behavior of the cosmos. Tantra emulates the wisdom of nature, including our own. Buddhism and tantra integrated in several significant manifestations. Newar Buddhism, indigenous to the Kathmandu Valley, is among the very earliest, representing a confluence of yogic techniques, sustained and stewarded by the Vajracharya and Shakya clans for nearly 2,000 years.
Tantra and Tantric Buddhism function by using sacred forms to cultivate mind and nature. One helpful definition of tantra is “bodily devotion.” Celebrating the mind-body complex as a conduit of ennobling energies is something at which ancient Asian meditation traditions excel. The physical devices at the core of both Hindu and Buddhist tantra—each with parallel internal applications—are mandala (geometric symbols of deity fields), mantra (empowered syllables and phrases), and mudra (consciousness-activating hand movements). Uniquely, in Newar Buddhist dance, the entire body, not only the hands, are considered mudra. Prajwal uses the term “transformation” to present the effective result of the inner and outer techniques of Charya Nritya, an ancient Buddhist dance; a tantric dance connected to mystic adepts indigenous to the Kathmandu Valley for centuries. These mystic adepts are Prajwal’s direct ancestors.
The overall mystical technique is one of embodying the deity, which is a concentration of virtues, symbolizing spiritual attributes, and more than that at the same time, transforming the very metabolic consciousness of the dancer into an enlightened being—a bodhisattva who exists to uplift, teach, and protect practitioners of self-cultivation. The vibratory reality of a deity’s virtuous embodiment in a dancer changes the atmosphere, not merely the dancer. An atmosphere of concentrated observation and spiritual openness characterize practitioners at a tantric temple. The experience of dance as meditation is rare. This kinetic, metabolic understanding of wisdom teachings encoded as deities, as songs, and as choreography, is, in fact, a remarkably preserved, refined ritual of one of humanity’s oldest forms of self-actualization: the transmitted yogic wisdom teachings of Newar Buddhism.
On 30 January, at the classy University Club in downtown Chicago, Core of Culture, the organization I direct, presented Endangered Dances of the Himalayas, an evening of dance, film, and conversation, featuring two Charya Nritya dances performed by Prajwal Vajracharya, with vocal accompaniment by Joshua Proto, a master of Vedic singing, who has learned the Sanskrit charya giti, or songs for Charya Nritya. These songs are part of traditional ritual prescriptions—multidisciplinary blueprints as it were—including dance instructions, iconographic details, and meditation techniques. These are called sadhanas, and correspond to specific deities, which correspond to specific manifold virtues, and so to specific techniques of transforming the consciousness into that of an embodied deity.
Thanks to Aleksandra Matic and the skilled and cooperative staff at the University Club, coupled with the genuine curiosity of the assembled guests, Core of Culture (CoC) was able to provide a special opportunity for the guests by asking them not to applaud, and to put away all phones and cameras for an unmediated experience. These two simple acts: refraining from applause and prohibiting cameras, offer people an opportunity to observe and participate in the ancient ritual actions of a Tantric Buddhist priest dancing. CoC also avoids placing a ritual dancer on a proscenium stage, which would only reinforce the idea that ritual dance is theatrical, when it is not. Prajwal danced in their midst, aligned so that everyone had a clear line of sight.
Inviting observers to see a dance not as theatrical entertainment but as one intending to balance and uplift their spirits is a transformation of perception. This realization of compassion, protection, and wisdom directed toward them through a dance, is touching. It is something unknown. The vibratory reality created by Joshua’s singing and Prajwal’s dancing transformed the medieval hall, a high-ceilinged, wooden, and stained-glass affair. Their embodied wisdom teachings, sung and danced, left everyone with a mindful resonance and a lingering image to carry with them; a time-tested conduit of spiritual virtues; an energetic imprint on the consciousness.
Our evening also included a wordless dance film Ocean of Mudra, directed by Lindsay Gilmour, shot and scored by Nathan Whitmont. This beautiful short film took the audience to the monasteries of Ladakh, in the western Himalayas. Revealing an inside look at the daily life of monks and the intergenerational transmission of esoteric techniques. The film showed how normal some things are to the monks—things that we consider extraordinary. Core of Culture also screened a version of the Cham Quad-split, a large four-screen installation that has been shown at six museums in the United States and Europe. It was shot by Gerard Houghton and Karma Tshering, with a score by Sandy Hoover and editing by Matt Hoffman. This innovative installation featured exclusive footage of Buddhist ritual dances from the final five years of the absolute monarchy in the Kingdom of Bhutan. Altogether, dances from Ladakh, Bhutan, and Nepal were shared with an appreciative and engaged group at the University Club of Chicago.
Prajwal’s concluding dance of Vajrasattva, a deity of wisdom, brought the audience to a silent gasp, witnessing Prajwal’s complete transformation into a graceful, beneficent, and peaceful deity. In contrast to the wild and ferocious embodiment of the wrathful deity Vajrapani that opened the evening, the shining, calm compassion of Vajrasattva was stunning. In a hush, Prajwal revealed the embodied secrets of his transmitted lineage. After he completed the dance and sat on the ground as Vajrasattva would sit upon it, the audience exclaimed in whispers, “It’s like looking a god! Look at his eyes! He’s seeing with the eyes of the deity.” The audience was astonished, perhaps purified, and allowed to stay that way, unviolated by applause or cameras. Grace of movement, sublime words, and spiritual technique handed down since ancient times, continue to speak powerfully to all of us navigating this modern world. If we give them—and ourselves—a chance.
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