DANCING - A Guide to Buddhism A to Z

Dancing (nacca) is movements of the body, particularly the feet, meant to express happiness and usually done to the accompaniment of music. At the time of the Buddha, dance had not yet developed into an art and was most often associated with drunkenness, sexual license or war. One of the eight Precepts that devout Buddhists will try to observe at least twice a month is abstention from dancing (A.IV,250). In Tibet and Bhutan, Jātaka stories and events from Buddhist history are re-enacted by masked dancers during religious festivals.

	DANCING
	Bhutanese monks dancing. Dancing (nacca) is movements of the body, particularly the feet, meant to express happiness and usually done to the accompaniment of music. At the time of the Buddha, dance had not yet developed into an art and was most often associated with drunkenness, sexual license or war. One of the eight Precepts that devout Buddhists will try to observe at least twice a month is abstention from dancing (A.IV,250). In Tibet and Bhutan, Jātaka stories and events from Buddhist history are re-enacted by masked dancers during religious festivals.		Search BuddhismAtoZ.com