Lalitpur, 20th Falgun 2075. Small children were busy running here and there for some kind of ornamental marks especially on their faces on afternoon of Monday- 20th Falgun 2075. They were getting ready for performing deity dances as a part of closing ceremony of Charya Nritya classes in Bubahal, Lalitpur. The training classes started on Baisakh this year coordinated by Vajrayani Charya Geet and Nritya Mandal, Lalitpur. Principal Nritya instructors-Guru includes Padma Raj Bajracharya and Hem Ratna Bajracharya; and there were around 35 students who successfully completed the course.
Various deity dances performed during the program consisted of Guru Namaskar, Sodasalasya, Pancha Tara, Tara, Vajrayogini, Yogini Mandala, Ganesh, Bhairab-Kali etc. According to Guru Padma Raj, Charya Nritya is an ancient form of expressive art that helps in realizing divinity in human body- the dance performer is supposed to feeling the deity whom she/ he representing. It is a ritualistic dance performed in Vajrayana Buddhism by realized masters that was not publicly opened somewhere around 65/ 70 years ago. Nepalese Choreographer Rajendra Shrestha would mark its sacredness as, "Charya Nritya is a meditation, a vehicle of bodily and spiritual transformation, and an opportunity for audiences to experience a vision of divine beauty" in the website http://www.coreofculture.org/charya-nritya.html (last retrieved on 20th Falgun 2075).
Text: Binay Maharjan
Photo: Yogesh Maharjan
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