Overview

The Mani Rimdu festival of Tengboche is performed in the 9th month of the Sherpa Tibetan calendar ( corresponds to 3rd week of October) according to the tradition of Mindroling and came from Rongbuk Monastery north of Tengboche in Tibet. The name comes from “Mani” part of the chant of Chenrezig, and “Rilbu & quot; which are the small red pills, which are blessed throughout the ceremony and distributed to everyone at the end.

At the beginning a beautiful and intricate mandala or sacred diagram is drawn in fine colored sand. The sand is collected from a special place high in the mountains. It takes four days to complete the mandala then it is covered and used as a focus for the next ten days meditation.

At the end of the ceremonies the monks perform the sacred mask dances known as Cham. There are sixteen dances with some comic interludes that delight the crowds. These dances are
a recreation of the establishment of Buddhism in the Himalayas by the legendary Padmasambhava, known as Guru Rinpoche. The dances convey Buddhist teachings on many levels from the simplest truth to the most profound realization. Throughout the dances, symbolic demons are conquered, dispeled or subdued. The symbolism can be interpreted on many levels; the inner “demons” of hatred, greed and ignor