Announcing the Tsumpa Cham Video Project
Treasure Caretaker Training has embarked this year on an exciting new video documentary project called TSUMPA CHAM.
This video will share ongoing conservation work in a remote community on the Tibetan border of Nepal, highlighting the textile conservation project for their traditional Cham attire. This video is funded by an Ashoka Grant and private donors and private foundations, and administered by the USA non-profit Treasure Caretaker Training (TCT) which works in monasteries and communities throughout the Buddhist world. The $5000 Ashoka Grant funding goes in its entirety to accomplished Bhutanese filmmaker, Karma Deki, who is on our TCT team as our Video Editor.
The Tsum Preservation Project is a five-year community-driven effort. I am the first professional conservator invited into the remote region, a network of villages with a centuries-old culture, led by a hereditary line of married Buddhist leaders.
There are no roads and no drinkable water; yet the culture is changing quickly with internet access, trekkers, and young people going away for education and work. The community leaders are concerned about the dissolution of their cultural heritage traditions, both tangible and intangible.
Cham consists of traditional sacred Himalayan Buddhist costumed dances, usually performed once a year in monasteries and their communities. This video will begin with video interviews with community leaders and local scholars about the history of Cham in the Tsum community, and the history of their older and newer Cham costumes.
Following the interviews, the video shows the transportation by perilous helicopter from Kathmandu to the Tsum community, the helicopter overloaded with masks, robes and monks, flying through a storm of wind and rain.
Then, the video documents the process of donning the robes, boots, masks, crowns and sacred implements in order to the practice singing and dancing. Our still images and videos document the October 2022 week of Cham performances, and performances of a cycle of Milarepa plays that has not been performed recently, and came from Tibet. The Tsum community joined in with traditional Tsumpa songs and dances.
Due to climate chaos, evident even in this very high Himalayan region, the Cham and Milarepa plays were performed mostly in torrential rain for several days.
The TSUMPA CHAM video documents the monks drying the costumes first in the main shrine hall while it was still pouring down, and then in the sun. The video shows images of the costumes being folded up for storage according to traditional handling methods.
Finally, TSUMPA CHAM video brings you back to Tsum, for the recent hands-on work of our conservation team (including a textile conservator) working with community members. We unpacked most of the costumes with the goal to share safer storage methods in a low-cost and practical way, which is the approach of Treasure Caretaker Training. The video shows how we demonstrate preparation for storage methods of rolling instead of folding, gently stuffing the cloth and leather boots to keep their shape, and re-storage of the elaborate masks, robes and ritual objects that the dancers carry. Instructional videos in English and Tibetan were created and are included.
This video is all about TSUMPA CHAM, and textile conservation in a traditional and remote community, when conservators are invited by the community for advice and hands-on work with community members on their traditional Cham dance treasures.
Ann Shaftel MA, MSc
Dalhousie University
Fellow, American Institute for Conservation Fellow, International Institute for Conservation Canadian Association of Professional Conservators ICOM and ICOMOS Member
WhatsApp 0019022221467 annshaftel@me.com
Examples of Safer, Practical, Low-Cost Storage for Cham Dance Treasures:
Wet boots drying in sun after Cham in rain.
Traditional storage of boots in sack or trunk.
Safer storage of boots, stuffed to maintain shape and to help prevent mold and absorb odors etc.
