DRAMETSE NGACHAM

The Dramétsé Ngacham, as the name suggests, is said to have originated in Drametse, a religious centre in eastern Bhutan. Choten Zangmo, about whom we know very little or almost nothing with certainty, is said to have established the first centre in the area. She is said to have been a daughter or granddaughter of Bhutan’s foremost saint and treasure discoverer Pema Lingpa (1450-1521) although we find nothing mentioned about her in surviving texts available to us. The site, formerly known as Brahmi, is said to have been renamed as Dramétsé (དགྲ་མེད་རྩེ་) or Spot without Enemy, because she settled there to pursue her religious life peacefully without the enemy (དགྲ་) of distraction. She was said to have been pursued as a bride by the ruler of her native Chökhor valley; she made her journey to Dramétsé to escape from him. Her brother, Künga Gyaltshen alias Künga Nyingpo, about whom we also know almost nothing, lived with her. Some accounts identify this person as Künga Wangpo, one of Pema Lingpa’s sons. As a practitioner of Buddhist meditation, Künga Gyaltshen had several visions and spiritual experiences. During one of his dream states, he is said to have visited Guru Rinpoche’s Copper-coloured Palace (ཟངས་མདོག་དཔལ་རི་), where he witnessed a drum dance performed by celestial spiritual beings. When he returned to his senses, he vividly remembered the external costumes, choreography, and movements as well as the internal process of visualization that accompanied them. Fully aware of the spiritual significance and the liberative power of the dance, he wrote down the details of the performance and enacted the dance in Dramétsé, thus giving it the name, Drum Dance of Dramétsé. Since then, it was performed at the site as a dance of immense religious significance.