A polychrome papier maché dance mask of Guru Dorje Drolo, Bhutan or Southern Tibet, 19th century

American Private Collection formed since the 1970s.

Becoming Another: The Power of Masks, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2015.

Françoise Pommaret, "Reenacting Foundational Stories as Communal Performance", In Karl Debreczeny and Elena Pakhoutova, eds., Himalayan Art in 108 Objects, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2023, cat. no. 94.

This exceptional dance mask represents Dorje Drolo, a fearsome aspect of the seventh century Indian Buddhist adept Padmasambhava, the master known in Tibet as Guru Rinpoche. Dorje Drolo was invoked in the subjugation of demons and malicious mountain spirits during the guru’s propagation of Buddhism in Tibet.

The mask is likely to have been one of a group depicting tantric forms of the guru, and worn for ritual dance during the Tshechu festival dedicated to the Eight Manifestations of Padmasambhava, often performed on the tenth day of the fifth month in celebration of the master’s birth. At such a festival observed at Paro Dzong Monastery in Bhutan, the principal aspect of Guru Rinpoche remains seated while each of the eight manifestations performs his masked dance before rejoining the master: at the completion of the ceremony the audience of devotees receive a thread that is worn as a blessing from Guru Rinpoche himself, see Françoise Pommaret, "Reenacting Foundational Stories as Communal Performance", In Karl Debreczeny and Elena Pakhoutova, eds., Himalayan Art in 108 Objects, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, 2023, p. 402. According to tradition, Tenzin Rabgye (1638-1696), the Fourth Druk Desi of Bhutan, introduced the Tshechu ceremony and ritual dance to Bhutan based on practice observed in Tibetan monasteries.