SOME JOURNEYS IN BHUTAN 



419 



which produce a strange and unusual, 

 but rather fascinating, music of their 

 own. But the most interesting objects to 

 me were the masks, which, instead of 

 being carved out of wood, as in Sikkim, 

 were molded from a papier-mache of 

 cloth and clay, and very well molded they 

 were — the heads of the various animals 

 quite recognizable and many with great 

 character (see pages 439 and 444). 



The fort is composed of a wonderful 

 collection of buildings. Within its nu- 

 merous courtyards, temples, and dwell- 

 ings it contains a population of perhaps 

 3,000 lamas and laymen and could hold 

 6,000 (see pages 420-423, 442, and 443). 



A distinctive feature which is most 

 striking in Bhutanese architecture is that 

 all the walls have a distinct camber, and 

 that the windows are of peculiar form, 

 with the sides sloping inwards. From 

 whence did this form of architecture 

 come? What is its origin? Did it come 

 into this remote and inaccessible region 

 in the Himalayas through the Akkadians, 

 Babylonians, Assyrians, and Persians 

 from Egypt? Or was the center from 

 which the art spread founded by a race 

 which had its habitat somewhere in Asia ? 

 An interesting question, which can only 

 be touched on here, but one which would 

 be worth some systematic study (pages 

 432 and 433). 



BLESSING THE RICE FIELDS 



Early one morning the sound of a 

 sweet-toned gong warned us that the 

 spring ceremony of blessing the rice fields 

 was about to begin (see page 420). 



A long and picturesque procession of 

 men and women, led by the Donyer, came 

 winding down the hillside until the first 

 rice field, into which water had been run- 

 ning all the day before, was reached. 

 The field below was still dry, and turning 

 in there they all sat down and had some 

 refreshment. Suddenly the men sprang 

 up, throwing off their outer garments ; 

 this was the signal for the women to 

 rush to the inundated field and to com- 

 mence throwing clods of earth and 

 splashes of muddy water on the men be- 

 low as they tried to climb up. 



Then followed a wild and mad, though 

 always good-natured, struggle between 



the men and the women in the water, the 

 men doing their utmost to take posses- 

 sion of the watery field, the women 

 equally determined to keep them out. 



The Donyer, the leader of the men, suf- 

 fered severely, though the courtesies of 

 war were strictly observed, and if one of 

 the assailants fell his opponents helped 

 him up and gave him a breathing space 

 to recover before a further onslaught was 

 made. But gradually the women drove 

 the men slowly down the whole length of 

 the field until the last stand was made by 

 a very stout and powerful official, who, 

 clinging to an overhanging rock, with his 

 back to his foes, used his feet to scoup 

 up such quantities of mud and water that 

 no one was able to come near him. 



However, all the other men having 

 been driven off, he and the Donyer were 

 allowed at last to crawl up on the path 

 and the combat for the year was over. 

 This was looked on as a very propitious 

 ending, as the victory of the women por- 

 tends, during the coming season, fertility 

 of the soil and increase among the flocks 

 and herds ; so they dispersed to their 

 various homes rejoicing. 



PRAYER- WHEELS DRIVEN BY WATER 



Below the eastern wall of Tonsa in the 

 ravine is the building containing the 

 prayer- wheels, worked by water, from 

 which the palace took its original name 

 of Chu-knor-rab-tsi. In it are two sets 

 of wheels, each axle containing three 

 manis, or cylinders, containing prayers, 

 one above the other, the smallest at the 

 top. They had evidently not been used 

 for some time, so the next day, having 

 nothing better to do, we assisted in put- 

 ting them in order by clearing out the 

 waterways, which had been blocked with 

 stones and rubbish, and hope it may be 

 placed to our credit as a work of merit. 



In Bhutan we often caw these water- 

 driven prayer-wheels, most of them in a 

 state of picturesque decay and only a few 

 still in working order. For the benefit of 

 •my readers who are unacquainted with 

 this practice, the following is a short de- 

 scription : A prayer-wheel consists of a 

 hollow cylinder filled with written or 

 printed prayers and fixed to a perpen- 

 dicular shaft of wood, to the lower end 

 of which horizontal flappers are attached, 



