The Sound of Prayers [DRA GYAK PUM JOM] is a collaborative vision by Choy Ka Fai and Nor’s Mandala captured in the Kingdom of Bhutan for its first Global Peace Prayer Festival. This short film is a continuum from CosmicWander project in the Himalayas.

Moving beyond traditional boundaries of ethnographic documentation, The Sound of Prayers documents ancient choreography of Cham Dance Ritual, re-read through the lens of contemporary visual anthropology. The film serves as an initiation into four specific notations of Cham ritual dance that govern the tantric psyche.

DRA: The "enemy inside us" GYAK: The "distraction in prayers" PUM: The "combination" of inner enemy and distraction JOM: The "intention to destroy"

The landscape of Bhutan is not a static backdrop but an active protagonist a site where ritualistic movement becomes a technology for transmutation. The Sound of Prayers stands as a testament to the power of artistic research in uncovering the "Real" within the mythic, challenging us to consider how ritual remains a vital, resilient force in the navigation of our precarious contemporary condition.