Known in Tibetan as Cham, "lama dance" refers to a specific form of dance performed in the context of meditative rituals and ceremonies in the monasteries. Generally, these dances represent an enactment of certain sacred rites pertaining to the countering of obstructive forces that hinder the life and well-being of the community. The dancers usually wear masks, including those depicting great masters of the past and others depicting an array of meditational deities, and perform intricate dance moves in tandem with the beating of cymbals and drums - as the associated texts are chanted. Traditionally, lama dances are performed on the 29th day of the last Tibetan month, a day before the Tibetan New Year eve, and the spectacle is watched by the entire town or village. The symbolic clearing away of all the negativities and obstructive forces accumulated over the passing year sets the tone for the coming year to begin anew - with purity, auspiciousness and joy.

The young monks in the monasteries, where the "lama dance" traditions are maintained, are taught by professional dance masters. The training is undertaken on the basis of a dance manual written in cryptic style using combinations of letters and numbers, which together represent a written description of the choreography of the various dances. The experienced dance master learns all the different moves of the dance according to the tradition of the particular monastery, each of which is represented by a combination of symbols. The individual elements of these symbols correspond to a sound, such as bir, pam, and so on, which the dance master utters when he demonstrates a particular dance move to a student. The utterance of a specific sound is related to a combination of a specific step and accompanying hand gestures, which the students learn by heart. The example of "lama dance" training given here belongs to the Mindroling tradition of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.

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