KUNSANG KYIRONG,
TASHI DORJI,
& CHE CHEN,
DE-RITUALIZE
THE CHAM DANCE
TASHI DORJI,
& CHE CHEN,
DE-RITUALIZE
THE CHAM DANCE
Thursday,
November 19, 2026
6:30pm
Doors
7pm
Performance begins
Limited capacity
November 19, 2026
6:30pm
Doors
7pm
Performance begins
Limited capacity
I first met Tashi Dorji while making my feature film 100 Sunset. During the writing process, his album Master of Time became an important reference point. I was drawn to the album’s use of repetition, rhythm, sonic theatrics, and oblique progressions, which evoked for me the imagery and movement of the Buddhist ceremonial cham dance, a tradition originating in Tibet. These rituals would feature the revolving cast of wrathful deities, demons, saints, and skeletons, who gyrate to music in a hypnotic, cyclical rhythm. Master of Time reminded me of this sonic and visual world.
Tashi became the composer for my film’s soundtrack and went on to expand the score for 100 Sunset into his recent album The Most Yielding Thing in the World Will Overcome the Most Rigid, recorded with MANAS, his long-standing band with Thom Nguyen. Che Chen joined MANAS in 2025 and I’ve invited Tashi and Che to perform a set beside the Tibetan Buddhist shrine at 222 Bowery. What interests me in their music is the abstraction of ritual: its repetition, and the echoing interplay of sound, memory, and meaning.
Tashi became the composer for my film’s soundtrack and went on to expand the score for 100 Sunset into his recent album The Most Yielding Thing in the World Will Overcome the Most Rigid, recorded with MANAS, his long-standing band with Thom Nguyen. Che Chen joined MANAS in 2025 and I’ve invited Tashi and Che to perform a set beside the Tibetan Buddhist shrine at 222 Bowery. What interests me in their music is the abstraction of ritual: its repetition, and the echoing interplay of sound, memory, and meaning.
The performance is paired with two silent archival films of cham that I discovered following a research visit to the Tibetan Studies Collection at Columbia University. These ethnographic documents show groups of masked monks in ornate costumes performing before large audiences, revealing an exchange between laypeople and the monastery, the ordinary and the esoteric, linking the sacred with the secular. I’ve also invited Constantine Lignos, a scholar from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, to offer some context on the history and evolution of cham traditions.
— Kunsang Kyirong
Wilhelm Filchner, Cham Dances in a Tibetan Lamasery (Kum-Bum Dshamba Ling), 1926; 16mm, silent, 13 min
Kunsang Kyirong is a Tibetan-Canadian filmmaker living in Toronto.
Tashi Dorji is a Bhutanese-born, Asheville-based experimental guitarist.
Tashi Dorji is a Bhutanese-born, Asheville-based experimental guitarist.
Che Chen is an improviser, bandleader, multi-instrumentalist and show organizer based in Queens, NY.
Constantine Lignos is a Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Religion at Yale University in the Institute of Sacred Music.
Constantine Lignos is a Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Religion at Yale University in the Institute of Sacred Music.
Due to the age and character of the building, the space is not optimized for ADA accessibility and is located up a single flight of 20 stairs with handrails. If you have questions about access, please contact us in advance of the event, and we will make every effort to accommodate you.
