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)

Source: wikipedia, dailyexcelsior.com and reachladakh.com

This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of HD imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of tens of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at rupindang [at] gmail [dot] com and [email protected].