Ladakhi Yak dance with one dancer dancing while wearing a mask and two others dressed as a yak. The dance was performed, in this case, during the Singge Khababs Festival in Leh. The Singhey Khababs festival, earlier known as the Sindhu Darshan Festival, is a festival held annually / every year in the town of leh, in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir in North India. The festival celebrates the Sindhu River or the Indus River and water from rivers all over India is brought in earthen pots and immersed in the Indus at the festival. The Indus River originates from Mansarovar Lake in Tibet and is known as such after is is formed with the confluence of the Sengge Chu / Singhe River and the Gar River. It then passes through Ladakh before going on to Pakistan and joining the Kabul River before ending up at a Delta east of Karachi in Pakistan. The River is also known as Sengge Chu, Darya-e-Sindh, Sinthos, Abaseen and Mehran and is the is the longest and most important river in Pakistan.

Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir State is a cultural goldmine.
Ladakh is rich in various forms of dances and these dances have been passed from one generation to another. Ladakhi culture though influenced by western Tibetan traditions is also influenced by Islam and Brokpa community (the Dard race).

These dances are simple in thought, language and movement of steps. The movement and rhythm of steps starts from slow to fast which ultimately gives a complete harmony and satisfaction to the musician, performer and spectators too.

The religious dance performed by the lamas (monks) is called Chhams and is related to monastic festivals, where it is performed to the music of the Monastic orchestra. Each monastery has its own orchestra. The dancers wear elaborate masks ranging from the fearsome and grotesque to the pleasing, and fine silk costumes representing various divinities from the Buddhist pantheon. Chhams are not meant for amusement but are spiritual, invoking blessings in order to wars off evil.

The music accompanying the Chhams is generally slow and haunting, and the musical instruments involved are the Dungchen (long horn), Gyaling (oboe), Nga (drums), Silnyen/bubjal (cymbals), kangling (shinbone trumpets), dung (conch shells), Damaru (skull drums) and Drilbu (bells). The masked dancers move around very slowly; the vital part of the dance being the mask, not the dance. All dances end with good triumphing over evil. The dances are performed not only to symbolize destruction of evil but as offerings to the monastery deity.

Every folk dance of Ladakh begins with homage to three gems that is Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.These folk dances are followed by certain rules and regulations while performing a dance. The dancers make a queue in order of social status. Firstly, an aristocratic person leads the dance followed by commoners and then an outcaste person. Dances of Ladakh are seen best in their natural form at wedding place, festivals and during archery contests.Traditionally, 360 variants of dances existed in early times but in today's time only few are preserved and are in vogue in Ladakh. These are as: male dances traditionally called Butse-tses and female dance known as pomey-tses. Next to it is Kompa Sum- tsag (the three step dance) Kathok chenmo(dance of nobility) celebrating the glory of Ladakh and the dynasty, Lhashon dance (dance of Gods and Goddesses) Chabskyan dance(beer or chang-pot dance) Mentok Stanmo (show of the flowers) Koshen dance(brocade dance)Takshon dance(aristocratic family dance)performed during new year, Shondol dance (breaking of line with backward steps) Chartses (bird dance) Nyewopa dance(marriage dance) jab-bro dance (Tibetan or nomadic dance) brokpa dance(Aryan dance ,another race in Ladakh) spawo dance (sword dance) Tashispa dance (dance of jubilation)
These dances reflect three stages. First starts slowly with a salutation with one round, in second stageof dance the rhythm and movement of dance step becomes little faster than the previous one and the last stage ends without salutation and these dances go for almost 15-30 minutes.

Source: wikipedia, dailyexcelsior.com and reachladakh.com

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