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The first Tibetan Buddhist monks came to Europe amid the surge of interest over attempts to summit Mt. Everest in the 1920s. Capitalizing on this excitement, a promoter in Darjeeling recruited men to pose as Tibetan cham dancers for the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924.
Dressed in what appeared to be authentic masks and robes, the troupe performed in a theater attached to the India Pavilion. Not everyone was impressed; a Tibetan student then studying in England regarded the performances as inauthentic and insulting to both Tibet and Buddhism.
Advertised as performing “weird and awe inspiring dances,” the troupe shared the stage alongside Indian snake charmers, jugglers, and magicians. This spectacle formed part of a long-standing colonial practice of publicly displaying foreign people as part of ethnological “human zoos.”
The costumes themselves drew on figures from actual cham rituals, including the fierce Buddhist deity Yama and a sacred stag.
Despite the unease of Tibetan officials, “real” Tibetan monks were allowed to tour Europe for the 1924 premier of the Epic of Everest, performing music as part of a live prologue to the film. For more on these monks, see Peter Hansen’s “The Dancing Lamas of Everest” (1996).
The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.
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