Tibet / China · Mask Making / Religious Craft
འཆམ (Cham)
Tibetan cham (འཆམ) masks are the ritual performance masks of Tibetan Buddhist monastery dance — related to but distinct from the Mongolian tsam (CRAFT-0612) in using a papier-mâché and lacquer construction rather than the Mongolian wire-and-papier-mâché approach, and in a fundamentally different iconometric system. Tibetan cham masks are typically smaller (30-50cm rather than 60-80cm) but more elaborately finished — multiple lacquer layers producing the specific sheen that must catch torchlight in monastery courtyards. The defining technical knowledge is the lacquer sheen calibration: each lacquer layer must cure completely before the next is applied — assessed by the torch reflection test: 'when the torchlight moves across the surface and leaves a clean moving highlight with no trailing smear, that layer is cured.' Moving highlight without smear = cured.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Component of Tibetan Buddhist ritual practice UNESCO nominations; China National ICH list
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