Masked ritual dance at Erdene Zuu Monastery

A vast Mongolian monastery fills our field of vision as the sacred dance called cham (still performed today) unfolds before us. At the center of seven concentric circles drawn on the ground lies the focus of the rite: a cone of barley dough called a zor. Ritualists dance around it, their masks so large that they must look out from the characters’ mouths to ensure their intricate movements remain synchronized.

Sacred figures have already danced to transform the circular space into a symbolic cremation ground where negativities will die. Other masked dancers drive evil into the zor, and a deerheaded figure will eventually shred it, symbolically destroying the evil and preparing the way for the prosperity generated by wealth deities.

The climax of the rite is when the buffalo-headed god of death, Yama, begins dancing. His manifestation expresses the insight that death is both inevitable and necessary to renewal.