The Snow Lion’s Attributes

FEATURES

By Joseph Houseal
May 16, 2026

Among the ritual dance traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, the Vajra dances of the Drikung Kagyu order are legendary for their length, meditative intensity, and spiritual ambition. Some last more than two hours, unfolding over several days of annual ceremonies. According to an important Drikung dance treatise, “dance is the apotheosis of mystical attainment.” This rare treatise is The Snow Lion’s Attributes, An Introduction to the Essence of the Drikung Kagyu Vajra Dances, with material dating to the 12th century. This treatise is finding new currency today.

The Drikung Kagyu is a sub-order of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. Their dances, and their unique history, are commemorated by this volume, which has had three printings to date: the original, then in 1992, and a revised edition in 2016. A second printing of the revised edition is in progress now. The Snow Lion’s Attributes is in both Tibetan and English.

Unique characteristics distinguish the Drikung Kagyu dances. They are longest dances among the Tibetan Buddhist orders. Beyond their length, dances are understood to be analogs of the meditative experience itself: a great danced metaphor for meditating, performed in a trance-like state, including advanced visualization and tantric meditation techniques.

The English text of this dance treatise is an adaptation of a Tibetan original by His Holiness Chetsang Rinpoche, head of the Drikung Kagyu order. Based on ancient texts, it was prepared especially for the guests of the inaugural ceremonies of the Drikung Kagyu Institute, Jangchubling Monastery, in November 1992. Jangchubling Monastery is the main seat-in-exile of the Drikung Kagyu order.

This inaugural event recreated another from 1669, when the Drikung Kagyu monks performed all of their dances for the Dalai Lama, who wished to see before him the most authoritative ritual dance traditions of Tibet as he consolidated the ceremonial culture of the Gelug order within his newly established political and religious sphere. In fact, the Gelug order—a later school of Tibetan Buddhism associated with the Dalai Lamas—may have only introduced cham during the reign of the Fifth Dalai Lama in the 17th century. The other orders had been dancing cham for many hundreds of years. The Cham Yig of the Gelug order, probably begun around 1647, was completed and published in 1712, only after the Fifth Dalai Lama witnessed all the dances of the Drikung Kagyu.

In 1992, His Holiness Chetsang Rinpoche sought to consecrate this new moment in political and religious reality, by inviting the 14th Dalai Lama to Dehradun, India, as a guest, not as a host, to witness in front of him the entire repertory of the Drikung Vajra dances. The 1992 act was a mirror image of the 1669 act; reversed. It was a gracious, creative, and sustaining act, in a time of turmoil, highlighting the fundamental role of dance as a protective energy. Traditional teaching among the Kagyu order, tells that early after the establishment of Tantric Buddhism in Tibet, lamas and yogis ensconced cham dance as a protective energetic forcefield around Tantric Buddhism. Circular movements and trance-like pacing transform the consciousness of the dancer and the atmosphere of experience.

Mandala dance diagrams for the Heruka deity *cham*. Image courtesy of the author

In our own time, a project has recently begun to fortify the illustrious tradition of Drikung Kagyu cham. Called The Cham Yig Project, it is the brainchild of an eminent Buddhist scholar, Khenpo Choswang, who has overseen authoritative research and publications to provide monks with the scriptural and manuscript resources required by monastic life. Khenpo is an outstanding and original researcher who, after preparing so many sacred manuscripts, is devoting his attention to restoring the full manuscript of the Drikung Kagyu dances, the Cham Yig. A Cham Yig is a dance manual: essentially, a ritual yogic dance instructional manual for monasteries.

In the Drikung Kagyu order, at least 32 monk dancers are required in order to perform all the dances correctly. Khenpo Choswang is also an excellent dancer, and this is where the organization I direct, Core of Culture, (CoC) comes in. Together with Ladakh CoC director Dr. Thinles Dorje, we will assist Khenpo Choswang in the monumental task of reconstructing a new Cham Yig from centuries of surviving remnants; scattered folios, fragmented and damaged dance manuscripts. The late explorer-linguist Rene de Nebsky-Wojkowitz, who, in the 1950s before the occupation of Tibet by China, translated the Cham Yig of the Gelug order, claimed that the tradition of comprehensive written instructions for the dance rituals accounted for the astonishing purity of transmission of Vajrayana monks for more than a thousand years. Many dances remain fundamentally unchanged after transmission over succeeding generations. Today, the scriptural rudder of the exalted dance tradition of the Drikung Kagyu is being rebuilt, and the dances themselves revived.

A monk dancer rehearses in winter. Photo by Nathan Whitmont

Cham is next level meditation, moving meditation, a whole mind-body embodiment of a deity in a danced, trance-like state. Accordingly, the Cham Yig provides instruction in dance, music, meditation, and ritual design. The purity of motivation among all involved in The Cham Yig Project is a pleasure to experience, and a high-minded way of working. Scholars and dancers from three Ladakhi monasteries—Lamayuru, Phyang, and Shachukul—have committed to a five-year collaboration to rebuild the document. Centuries of orally transmitted choreography will help restore sections where manuscripts are incomplete or lost. Many of the scholars can dance, many of the dancers are scholars. All of them practice meditation.

The Cham Yig Project is produced by Core of Culture, with lead funding from the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Global, and with support from the Kipper Family Foundation and Jeffrey R. Costello. The project is carried out in close cooperation with academic director Khenpo Choswang, implementation director Thinles Dorje, and monks from three monasteries. It is a five-year project dedicated to reconstructing and transmitting the Cham Yig of the Drikung Kagyu lineage in Ladakh. Cham Yigs, dance manuals that encode choreography, ritual meaning, and lineage continuity, are essential to the performance of monastic dances, cham.

An example of monastic music notation. Image courtesy of Khenpo Choswang

The aim of this project is to create, for the first time in living memory, a complete Drikung Kagyu Cham Yig through a process that unites living dance transmission with scholarship. The project brings together monks of different generations, scholars, dancers, musicians, and senior ritual leaders to reconstruct, document, and disseminate a new, complete Cham Yig. The result will be both a practical manual for performance within the Drikung Kagyu tradition and a model for how lost ritual traditions might be revived in other Buddhist lineages. Over five years, this collaborative effort will reconstruct the text, confirm its ritual accuracy through performance and teaching, and publish it for both internal and wider audiences. The new Cham Yig becomes an historical record that will stand the test of time.

For the opening of this five-year project, in June 2026, a ceremony will be held at Lamyuru Monastery, acknowledging everyone involved in this monumental endeavor. The 15 scholars will receive new monk robes. The 96 dancers—32 from each monastery—will receive new shoes as well as robes. Everyone will be given a copy of The Snow Lions Attributes, a rare Tantric Buddhist dance treatise, now, remarkably, in its third printing. In an age when many ritual traditions struggle simply to survive, the Drikung Kagyu dances are entering a new cycle of transmission. Ancient manuscripts are returning to life through memory, scholarship, meditation, and movement itself.

Khenpo Choswang shares some of the nearly 500 pages of a pecha manuscript volume. It is the gathered dance research of several decades, covering hundreds of years of dance manuscript documents and fragments. These ancient documents contain archaic scripts, various types of Tibetan grammar and syntax, and whole vocabularies for dance and its instruction that are not used today. The next task will be to transliterate the entire 484 pages here into universal Tibetan, which anyone can read, making the ancient documents available for the first time. Video courtesy of Khenpo Choswang

Joseph Houseal

Joseph Houseal is the director of Core of Culture, an organization dedicated to safeguarding intangible world culture and assuring the continuity of ancient dance traditions where they originate. As a religious, philosophical, and ritual expression, dance has an important role in the practice of Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, and other Asian belief systems. Long unbroken transmissions of movement forms are reflected in religious artistic depictions, where performative iconography is mystical code as well as movement illustration. Ancient Dances looks at the aspects of dance and spirituality to enhance practice and appreciation among readers, and to raise cultural awareness in our changing world. It uses dance as a lens to explore states of consciousness and symbolic representations. Ancient Dances is published monthly.

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