Clowns performing ritual to appease local deity

The Shinjé Yabyum dance is a display of Yamāntaka, performed by two dancers wearing red bull masks, silk robes, vajra shoulder covers, and traditional Bhutanese leather boots. They each hold a sword symbolizing the wisdom that cuts through ignorance. The dance is accompanied by a musical orchestra constituted of a cymbal and long horns. During the entry and the exit chapters, oboes are also played. \n\nVajrayāna rituals including sacred cham require the stage to be cleansed of negative forces. Thus, the female and male wrathful forms of Mañjuśrī chase evil forces and bless the ground as sacred space. This action of delimiting the ground is called sachag, or establishing the ground. The dance is also performed as a piece during the dance tests, which the dancers perform without wearing masks. The dance is often performed by the dancers who are next to the two chief dancers, these being the first and the last dancers.\n\nDuring this dance, the master clown often appears to make fun of the two bull-masked figures, pretending they are bullocks and he is a ploughman. The movement of the dance, like most other cham, alternate between slow and peaceful motions and fast violent movements. \n\nNote : The text above is an excerpt from the collection of essays from the Bhutan Cultural Library (https://schopheltrashigangpa.wordpress.com/) and adapted with the information provided from the National Library and Archives of Bhutan.