Qing-era living Buddha of Guangzong Monastery in Alxa, also called Wenduer Gegen, who shaped the monastery's cham dance from Tibetan Buddhist ritual dance.
Mural guide
Mural of the cultural record “Mongolian and Northern Peoples' Dance”, which this person is tied to.
Luosang Tudeng Jiacuo, also called Wenduer Gegen, was a living Buddha of Guangzong Monastery (the South Monastery) in Alxa under the Qing; heritage records name him its first-generation living Buddha, but little else is recorded of his life. The monastery was founded in 1757. Between 1764 and 1778 he reworked Tibetan Buddhist ritual dance into the Guangzong cham, a sequence of fourteen sections performed to avert disaster and protect all beings. From then until 1960 the Guangzong cham was danced without a break in the major monasteries of Alxa, training a line of cham masters, and it is now part of the national intangible heritage listing for cham.
Life and times
UnknownBornQingcreated the Guangzong Monastery cham between 1764 and 1778
UnknownDied
Records
Reworked a ritual dance into the Guangzong Monastery Cham
1764–1778
Between 1764 and 1778 Luosang Tudengjiacuo took the ritual dances of Tibetan Buddhism as his base and reworked them into the Guangzong Monastery cham. The dance has fourteen sections and takes about sixty minutes, performed along a circle, and falls broadly into three forms: praise dances, joyful dances and bird-and-beast dances. Its thirty-six cham deities are played by thirty-six dancers, who keep a strict order of entry and fixed positions.
References (1)
查玛↗SourceChina Intangible Cultural Heritage Network
Incarnate lama of Guangzong Monastery in Alashan
Qing
Luosang Tudengjiacuo (also called Ondor Gegen) was the first incarnate lama of Guangzong Monastery in Alashan. The Guangzong Monastery cham dance he created is performed to dispel misfortune and calamity, protect living beings and pray for peace and good fortune in the world, and it was kept up in the many monasteries of Alashan without a break from 1778 to 1960, more than two centuries.
References (1)
查玛↗SourceChina Intangible Cultural Heritage Network
Qing