I think your answer can be found here:
http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/templates/builtins/#templatetag
In short, you want to use {% templatetag openbrace %} and {% templatetag closebrace %}.
Edit: Django now also includes this functionality out of the box:
{% verbatim %} {{ blah blah }} {% endverbatim %}
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1659492/how-to-put-braces-in-django-templates