At the New Year the Tibetans watch out for omens for the forthcoming year, the best of which, if one is to start soon on a journey, is to see a young woman with a child in her arms. To see flags, banners, milking of cows, persons carrying vessels filled with water or any other liquid, or timber for house-building or firewood, is lucky, as is also the sight of a corpse on a bier. To meet well-dressed persons, to be greeted by friends, to hear a lucky name, are also held to be signs of good luck; but to see beggars, ragged persons, empty vessels, a person descending a hill, or carrying shoes in his hand, a saddled horse without a rider, to hear impolite or rough language, are portends of bad fortune.[31]
On New Year’s day dancing beggars (or Dre-kar) make their appearance in the streets and houses. They wear masks, usually representing a black devil, with a shaggy, white beard, with cowries for eyebrows and encircling his face, and sometimes with a cowrie on either cheek. They dance and crack jokes to the delight of the guests assembled in each house for the New Year’s breakfast.[32]
In the afternoon there is further feasting in most of the houses, and the guests, both male and female, frequently end the entertainment with a dance (shabdo); first, the women dance alone, then the men, and finally, both sexes together.[33]
The New Year’s festivities terminate on the third day at noon, when the monks of the great lamaseries all meet in the Kyil khording (or Jo khang) to hear the Grand Lama expound the faith. On each succeeding day, till the 24th of the moon, they hold the great prayer-meeting, or monlam chenpo.[34] [[266]]
In the afternoon of the third, the Tsog-chen Shalnyo of Dabung assumes the government of Lhasa for the next month and a half, previously informing the police magistrates of the fact, and henceforth all authority, even that of the Kalon, as far as the city is concerned, is vested in him alone.[35]
om ma ni Pa dme hûm.
[[267]]
[1] I think these “classes” are more theoretical than real, and that these remarks are probably borrowed from some work, based on Indian notions. The idea of caste is un-Tibetan as it is un-Chinese. Rab (rabs) means “family, race, social class.” Rab-kyi rabs means “upper superior class;” Rab-kyi ding, “middle superior class;” Rab-kyi tama, “lowest superior;” Ding-kyi rab, “superior middle class,” etc., etc.—(W. R.) [↑]