Page:Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet.djvu/248

 characters, and the cattle have to be locked up at night in the stables and sheep-pens.

The next day, being the anniversary of the birth of Peme Chyungnas (Padma Sambhava), a grand religions dance took place in the courtyard of the temple, in the presence of the five surviving members of the royal Khon family of Sakya, who sat on chairs on a raised daïs under a large Chinese umbrella, with attendants carrying the gyal-tsan or banners, and the sceptre.

Eighty gaudily dressed dancers (chyampa) danced the day long to the music of clarionets, trumpets, kettle-drums, tambourines, and cymbals, stopping only occasionally to partake of tea. When they finally stopped they carried off with them on their shoulders quantities of khatag flung to them by the audience.

This dance, called the "club dance" (phurpai kil chyam), was performed in celebration of the birth, from a lotus flower in the lake of Dhanakosha, of the sage Uddayani. Two Timpon and a dozen policemen kept the great crowd in order with their whips.

When the ceremony of the day was over, the heir apparent of the Sakya Panchen took his seat in the maidan in front of the great temple, and gave his blessing (chyag wang) to all who approached. Ugyen visited the same day the famous library, where he saw many manuscripts written in gold, the pages some six to eight feet long and three or four feet broad. On the board which covered these volumes were painted in gold and silver the images of innumerable Buddhas. There were also many books in Chinese, dating back to the early years of the Christian era.

The next day another kind of dance, called the dsa-nag, or "black hat" dance, was performed in the court of the residence of Gong-sa. There were about eighty dancers. Seventy kept up the dance continually, while the ten remaining took refreshments. They danced with much grace, the movements of their arms and hands being especially curious.

On August 17 Ugyen left Sakya, and travelling by way of Lhadong, Shong-mar-tse, the Pa la and Chiblung, reached Dobta on the 20th. This latter locality he found very poor, the people living