Mongolian Dance and Mask Making
Arlington, Virginia
Photo: Pat Jarrett
The tsam is a Buddhist ritual performed by dancers wearing elaborate costumes and masks. It was introduced to Mongolia in the eighth century, when the Indian saint Lovon Badamjunai sanctified the first Tibetan Buddhist temple. The tsam is a secret and subtle ritual, the meaning of which is often known only to those who perform it. In the 1930s, the Communist government in Mongolia banned the tsam, along with other religious displays. It has since been revived by a number of Mongolian artists, particularly Gankhuyag “Ganna” Natsag, a mask maker and visual artist who was born in Ulaanbaatar.
Ganna's parents, famous masters of traditional Mongolian handcrafts, introduced him at an early age to the fine art of making dance masks for the tsam. He now lives in Arlington, where he helps to keep the tsam tradition alive in the city’s growing Mongolian community. Ganna is a prolific artist whose ritual masks and costumes have been exhibited all over the world; most recently, he helped curate the exhibition Genghis Khan: Bring the Legend to Life at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. For this and a lifetime of promoting, perpetuating, and showcasing Mongolian arts and culture, the government of Mongolia recently named Ganna the Mongolian Cultural Ambassador to the United States.
Ganna dreams of creating a World Peace Pagoda in Mongolia and has even met with the Dalai Lama to receive his support of the project. He also has passed on the tradition of mask making and the accompanying dance to his children, Zanabazar and Maral Gankhuyag. Zanabazar, known as Zana, is perfecting the art of Mongolian traditional dance. In addition to Ganna and his family’s performance on the Virginia Folklife Stage, they will be performing and demonstrating throughout the weekend in the Virginia Folklife Traditional Crafts Area. Their presentation, “MASK” will mark the first time that the entire Virginia Folklife Crafts Area will be devoted to a single artist.