1921.] Three Tibetan Repartee Songs. 291 
From the above it should be clear that the discussion is 
are used the greater is the renown of er. Tshang- 
yang’s love-songs seem to contribute a large amount of the 
material for these entertainments. The last eight lines given 
a very brief one 
The gsung bshad is not exclusively amorous but often so, 
and naturally so amongst young people of different sex. 
may, however, also be a complimentary dialogue embodying 
mutual courtesies and flatteries. It may even be a mystical 
song of a religious nature. In Milarapa’s works the latter 
kind of dialogue is to be found. Other varieties of the gsung 
bshad are those in which the dialogue is meant to convey 
i i iti i men of 
prophecies are made. Others again express political or 
social satire and criticism. There are many kinds and they 
often afford precious information about social or political 
conditions of the times. New gsung bshad sayings spring 
up continually, and especially at Lhasa at the occasion 
of the annual SFOS ASS, The telling ones are eagerly 
taken up and subsequently spread through all Tibet. It 
is said that the new songs are always first sung by the girls 
who draw the water at the occasion of the above festival, the 
RAT, who sing these songs when going about their work. 
The expressions used are highly coloured, allusive and 
metaphorical. The gsung bshad is a source of 
n 
while to study these similarities closely. In Bengal there used 
to be a form of entertainment, now fast dying out, but still 
widely prevalent some half a century 80, which may be 
compared with the Tibetan form. Tt was that of the 
Kabirgan or Kabirladai, also called Jarigan, n which pro- 
fessionals held such poetic disputations for the amusement of 
the public.! The Bengal form was largely one of abuse, and 
1 At the end of this introduction I append, in the form of an adden- 
dum a few notes on this matter and on some collateral topics. 
