Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorjee performs Vajra dance at Tergar monastery in Bodhgaya on Monday. Picture by Suman

Gaya, Feb. 20: Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorjee performed the sacred Vajra dance for the first time today in public during a historic ceremony at the stage ground of Tergar monastery in Bodhgaya.

Dorjee is one of the two claimants to the seat of 17th Karmapa of the Kagyu lineage in Tibet.

The Vajra dance is traditionally held on the concluding day of an intensive ritual cycle of Mahakala, performed annually at the beginning of the Tibetan New Year, The ritual aims at clearing all hurdles.

Two principal disciples of Ogyen Trinley Dorjee — Gyaltsab Rinpoche and Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche — also performed masked dances as part of the event.

Over 8,000 devotees and followers of Dorjee from Ladakh, Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh witnessed the Karmapa’s performance.

The Karmapa, clad in traditional Tibetan regalia, started the dance around 8am and continued for nearly one-and-a-half hours without any break, while his followers played music with traditional Tibetan instruments. The music is composed in Tibet within the lineage of the Karmapa.

According to a press release issued by the Karmapa’s office of administration, the costume of Karmapa, which represents a mukhadeva dharmapala, is made in India but follows centuries old patterns from Tibet.

“The tradition in Tibet before the Communist invasion was to perform the dance every year before the beginning of the Tibetan New Year. Dorjee is resurrecting the lost tradition here in India. Tibetan monasteries are rarely able to perform this dance form in Tibet under Chinese rule,” the statement added.

Those present at the audience gallery to witness Dorjee’s dance performance included Jetsun Pema, the sister of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, Tenpa Tsering, representative of the Dalai Lama from Delhi, besides the commanding officer of Officers Training Academy O.P. Sharma, Magadh division commissioner Vivek Kumar Singh, range deputy inspector-general of police Nayyer Hasnain Khan, Gaya senior superintendent of police Vinay Kumar and guests from Ladakh, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and elsewhere.

The day’s events began with an all-night puja from 11 last night that continued till 4am today. Karmapa extended his blessings to the sacred costumes of other dancers.

After the dance by the Karmapa, other devotees, including his two principal disciples, also performed the ritual dance. The ceremony concluded with a fire puja in the evening.