Buddhafest took place from 11th till 13th August 2023 in Sikonda, Hungary. It was organized by the Dharma Gate Buddhist Church and College in Budapest which is also providing space for the Hungarian Dzogchen Community for regular practices.  Participants of the course could learn about the diverse traditions of Buddhism within the framework of sitting and movement practices. Not only Khaita but also Vajra Dance and Yantra Yoga offered the possibility to experience practices connected with movement. The festival was placed in the beautiful south part of Hungary and all the programs took place outdoors in a summer camp under the trees. This spacious place offered the opportunity to create nine stages. Eight of them were connected with the eight precious buddhist symbols and the ninth was wearing the symbol of mirror and became home for Vajra Dance. Khaita stage was placed under the Victorious Banner.

Khaita workshop was a part of the festival and took place on Saturday (1,5 hour) and Sunday (2 hours) and was led by Khaita Educational Program students Nadiia Gnatenko and Martina Krejčová. The program of the workshop, preparation of materials and organization were done in a team with Khaita practitioners from Hungary and Czech Republic, who also participated in workshop to support us: Ákos Novotny, Květa Švédová, Eva Strouhalová and Laci Kléri. Photos and videos were taken by Pavel Petráněk.

We chose the dances with topics corresponding to the festival – addressing Buddhist values, involving Buddhist symbols, bringing benefit to all beings.

Both days we began dancing Khaita to catch people’s attention because we were outdoors and many people were also just passing by. Then we followed by a short explanation of what Khaita dances are, where they come from etc. After that we invited everyone to join a short warm up and then we started to dance. 

First day we taught dances So Yarelo and Tashi Dangpo for around 20 participants. We also sang Tashi Dangpo and before singing Nadiia explained the meaning. People got a beautiful leaflet where they found the text and also other information of what is Khaita and some important links where they can find other information about Khaita, about upcoming courses and about a place in Hungary where they can dance Khaita.

The second day we started as we did the first day by a Khaita dance, warm up and short explanation and we repeated the dances from the first day with 10 participants. Because it was really hot and our spot was partly on the sunny side, it was really challenging to dance. So after one hour, when we arrived for a break people felt very hot and after the break most of the people didnť come back. But two of the dancers who were enthusiastic, young and strong stayed and we continued with teaching Monzhey. We also explained and danced Tala Shipa and Ala Lamo Se.                                   

We believe people really enjoyed dancing and singing. We were really surprised by how quickly they managed to learn the basic step and some of the dances. We even challenged them to exchange the khatags in Tashi Dangpo dance and we all enjoyed the joyful and happy atmosphere. We would like to thank to Adriana dal Borgo who helps us on the way to become good instructors and who supports us in our activities, to the Dharma Gate Buddhist Church and College for unique opportunity to participate in the Buddhafest, to everyone who participated in the workshop and to our fellow students who also support us by commenting on our activities and videos.

Authors: Martina Krejčová and Nadiia Gnatenko for The Mirror, Turning the Wheel of Khaita Joyful Dances