The Art Characteristics And Cultural Meanings Of Mongolian Religion Dance Chama

Mongolian word Chama has the same meaning with Qiangmu in Tibetan word, both of them mean dancing to god, beating ghost and driving out evil, which is a dance been used in preaching Buddhism after cultural integration of Mongolian religion and Tibetan religion. Chama is not equal to Qiangmu. Beside similar basic structure, Chama absorbed Mongolian dance technique and local custom, which is formed a religion dance with unique Mongolian style.This paper takes Mongolian religion dance Chama as research object and dance anthropology and body language in dance as methods, exploring what is Chama dance movement, how the inheritance and evolution of Chama are going, and what is the Chama dance affection to the development of Mongolian dance. With the aim of exploring artistic characteristics and spiritual nature of Chama, the first part of this paper analyzes basic structures and cultural characteristics of Chama dance rite and explains body language of Chama dance; the second part explains the course of Chama dance, investigates the development of Chama dance rite structures and functions and concludes historical basis of cultural evolution; the third part compares Chama, Qiangmu and Tiaobuzha and analyzes the differences of Mongolian, Tibetan and Manchu religious dance; the fourth part studies active heritage and protection of Chama and analyzes the positive effect of protecting and recreating Chama to social culture and art construction. The aim of inheriting and developing special elements which have Mongolian styles is to provide theory references and effective researching methods for folk dance in teaching and performing.