SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 1 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

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Fill in the blank: The sacred masked dances performed by monks at Hemis represent various ______ of the Drugpa lineage.

(a)reincarnated lamas
(b)ancient kings
(c)guardian divinities
(d)ancestral spirits

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The masks worn by the monks in the Hemis dances represent guardian divinities of the Drugpa (Drukpa) order, of which Hemis is the leading establishment in Ladakh. That is the description on the government festival portal, utsav.gov.in.

The dances, called cham, belong to the tantric Vajrayana tradition and are staged at the festival honouring Padmasambhava. The blank takes 'guardian divinities' → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
reincarnated lamas — The dancers are monks, but the masks do not depict reincarnated lamas. The government festival portal utsav.gov.in says they represent guardian divinities of the Drugpa order.
(b)
ancient kings — Hemis was re-established under the Ladakhi king Sengge Namgyal in 1672, but the dances do not portray ancient kings. The masks stand for divinities in a religious rite.
(d)
ancestral spirits — Ancestral spirits belong to ancestor worship, which a cham does not enact. Its masked figures are divinities, and the dances depict the triumph of good over evil.

Concept

Hemis monastery in Ladakh is the principal seat of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. It existed before the 11th century and was re-established by King Sengge Namgyal in 1672.

Its annual festival honours Guru Padmasambhava. The monks perform cham, masked dances of the tantric Vajrayana tradition, in which the masks stand for guardian divinities and the dances show good triumphing over evil.

The stem spells the lineage Drugpa, and most sources write Drukpa. Both name the same Kagyu order.

Key facts

Hemis monastery in Ladakh is the principal seat of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage.
King Sengge Namgyal re-established Hemis in 1672.
The Hemis festival honours Guru Padmasambhava.
At Hemis the masks worn by the cham dancers represent guardian divinities of the Drugpa order.

Study next

Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) and the spread of Buddhism to TibetThe four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism: Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and GelugMonastery festivals of Ladakh and Sikkim

Common traps

Reading 'monks' in the stem and picking reincarnated lamas: the performers are monks, but the masks they wear stand for divinities.
Giving Hemis the wrong order: it belongs to the Drukpa Kagyu, not to the Gelug order of the Dalai Lama.

Here the festival is asked through what its dances mean. The same festival is asked by place at 12 Sep 2024, 09:00, GA Q.8, which asks in which state/UT the Hemis festival is celebrated (keyed Ladakh).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.