January 30, 2020
Monlam Pavillion, Bodhgaya
January 4 – 30, 2020

Each year, Kagyupa International Monlam Trust supports the work of the torma makers who gather to create the butter sculptures for the Kagyu Monlam Chenmo and any rituals which will take place. The team in 2020 comprises 14 nuns and 53 monks, a mix of highly skilled and experienced senior torma makers and less-experienced junior ones.

Until now, the most complex butter sculptures, especially Buddha images, have been made only by senior torma makers, while the junior ones concentrated on the easier, more straightforward butter sculpture work such as leaves, decorations, the eight auspicious symbols and the 6 –syllable mantra [Om Mani Padme Hum]. This year, under the direction of Chöpon Ösel, in order to extend the range of skills of the junior torma makers, it was decided that all the Buddha butter sculptures would be made by junior torma makers, assisted and overseen by senior ones. The lead teachers were Chöpon Sonam Rinchen and Chöpon Karma Samten,though all the senior torma makers were involved in tutoring and encouraging the juniors.

It has been a great success. (Continue reading here)

Religions take the cast and hue of the cultures in which they find root. This was certainly true in Tibet when Buddhism arrived in the 7th century. It transformed by the native religion of Bon. Of the many creative practices that arose from this synthesis, Tibetan Buddhist music ranks very highly in importance.

Source: Tibetan Musical Notation Is Beautiful | Open Culture

Torma (Tibetan: tor ma. Sanskrit: ba lim ta): torma are cone shaped ritual food offerings sculpted in a variety of shapes and sizes, coloured and then adorned with flat circular ‘buttons’ made from butter.Red coloured torma, triangular in shape, are offered to fearsome protector deities such as Mahakala and Shri Devi. Torma are made from barley flour and constructed for several reasons. They are made as special offerings for specific deities on special days. They are sometimes used to represent the subject of an initiation ritual. They are also used as weapons during repulsion rituals such as turning back obstacles during New Years celebrations. They are sometimes depicted in paintings meant to hang in the temples of the wrathful protector deities.Jeff Watt 5-2005

Source: Miscellaneous – Offerings (Himalayan Art)

Beneath the brilliant image of the Buddha stretches a 50-foot, three-tiered altar of tormas (sculpted offerings), pyramids of incense, and heaps of fruit and sweets. This year, the eight tall tormas on the top row depict the main figures of the Eight Great Founders of the Practice lineages, brought from India to Tibet: for the Nyingma, Guru Rinpoche; for the Kadampa, Jowo Atisha; for the Path and Fruition of the Sakya, Sachen Kunga Nyingpo; for the Kagyu, Marpa Lotsawa; for the Shangpa Kagyu, Khyungpo Naljor; for the Jonangpa, Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen; and for the Nyendrup (Approach and Accomplishment) of the Three Vajras, Drupthop Urgyenpa. Indicating great respect for each of these eight lineages and their founders, beneath each one, depicted on two disks and on the base of the torma are one each of the eight auspicious symbols, the eight auspicious substances, and the 7 seven kinds precious metals and jewels plus one of gemstones in general. Two colorful offering goddesses from the tradition of Chakrasamvara flanked each of the eight great teachers.

Source: The Karmapa Attends the Kagyu Monlam in North America for the First Time | Karmapa – The Official Website of the 17th Karmapa

“Tor in Tibetan is that which, when the hurricane or tornado comes, the whole city, whole town, after one hour, is totally destroyed, everywhere pieces, all the houses gone, so all the pieces are tor. Or when in a field you plant crops you throw seeds, this is called tor. Or when you give grain, when you give food to birds, you tor, but not so much that, tor is more like the hurricane destroying a city or town, after half an hour, one hour, totally, everything is scattered. Tor is like that, something scattered or destroyed. Tor is more in the sense of destroy. So torma, that which destroys.

“So one meaning of torma is destroying miserliness, your miserliness, so therefore torma are made very rich, the best and richest quality you can make. It means you spend money destroying your miserliness, making a good offering to the deity. So that’s one meaning of tor, that which destroys your miserliness, your attachment.

“Then the other meaning is related also to the maha-anuttara tantric path, where the experience of transcendental wisdom, the great bliss, the voidness, is the real torma. That is the real torma … So then that tor destroys like a bomb; it destroys the root of samsara: the ignorance holding the I, the aggregates, to be truly existent. So the torma is that which destroys that …

“Just one more word, then finish. Why do Tibetans make tormas so beautiful, with decorations and shapes, as beautiful as they can make them? It creates the cause to have beautiful bodies in future lives if you make the tormas very beautiful …”

For the entire article: Lama Zopa Rinpoche Explains Tormas – FPMT

High in the Himalayas, in Bhutan, Tibet, Nepal, and India, and across the steppes of Mongolia, Buddhist monks in medieval monasteries hold sacred festivals once a year, during which they perform 1,300-year-old mystical dances, collectively called cham, in order to transform evil for the benefit of the entire world.   The monks meditate for days and even weeks beforehand, visualizing and invoking protective deities.  Then they stage elaborate performances during which, visualizing themselves as deities, performing ancient movements, and repeating sacred mantras (invocations), they draw in the evil in the crowd and the surrounding world.  The evil is trapped in an effigy, a human body made of dough.  At the climax of the ceremony, the dance master (called a chamspon) cuts open the effigy and draws the evil into his own body to show it peace and the path to liberation, thus transforming it.   Source: Cham – Core Of Culture

Source: Cham – Core Of Culture

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul. We dance as kids. We dance as teenagers. We dance in clubs” – Sergei Polunin