Tibetan Boys and Girls.
Boys enjoy better treatment in Tibet than their sisters, this
discrimination beginning soon after their birth. Thus the naming
ceremony is almost always performed for boys and very seldom for girls.
Though differing more or less according to localities, this naming
ceremony is generally performed after the lapse of three days from the
time of birth. One strange custom about the birth is that a baby is
never washed, nor is there a regular midwife. The only thing done to
the new-born baby is the anointing of its body (especially the head)
with butter, this being carried out twice a day. As this anointing is
rather copiously applied, the Tibetan baby may perhaps be described as
being subjected to butter-washing.
On the naming-day, a priest is asked to perform the ceremony. The
process commences with the sprinkling of holy water on the baby’s head.
The water is first blessed by the priest, and a quantity of yellow
powder made of the saffron flower is then added to it.
[Illustration: NAMING CEREMONY OF A BABY.]
The name is generally determined according to the day of the birth, and
especially according to the nomenclature of the days of the week. For
instance a boy or a girl who is born on Sunday is named Nyima, this
meaning Sun in Tibetan. The babies born on Monday bear the common name
of Dawa; those on Saturday Penba; those on Friday Pasang; and so on.
This general use of the same names giving rise to confusion, a specific
individual surname has to be given to each baby. The individual
appellation either precedes or follows the common designation. One baby
bears the name of Nyima-Chering meaning “Sun longevity,” another
Dawa-pun-tsuok, meaning “Moon-all-perfection.”
The choice of such individual names is usually made by the Lama who
attends the ceremony, or is determined by an oracle-consulter, and only
rarely by the father of the baby.
Sometimes the week nomenclature is disregarded and names of abstract
meaning are given to the babies; sometimes also names of animals are
used. On the whole the surnames are of an abstract nature as in the
case of Japanese names. I may add that the boys take a religious name
when they enter the priesthood.
On the naming-day of boys a great feast is held in honor of the
occasion, and the relatives and friends of the family are invited to
it. These of course bring with them suitable presents, such as casks
of liquor, rolls of cloth, or money. The ceremony and the banquet that
accompanies it are chiefly observed by people residing in or near a
city, for in the provinces only wealthy people can afford to follow
this custom.
When the naming ceremony is concluded, the officiating priest reads
a service, in order to inform the patron deity of the place or of
the family of the birth of a baby, and of the fact that that baby
has received such and such a name, and praying that the baby shall
be taken under the protection of that patron deity. This service may
be undertaken by a priest of either the New or Old Sect or by an
oracle-consulter. The last named functionary performs with his own hand
all the ceremony of name-giving, when a baby is born to him, and does
not entrust this business to another priest.
The beginning of school-attendance is another great occasion for boys,
and it arrives when the boy attains the age of eight or nine. This day
also is celebrated with a feast, to which the relatives and friends of
the house are invited, and these present to the boy a kata, which the
boy hangs around his neck with the two ends suspended over his breast.
If the boy is sent to a teacher residing at some distance from his
home, he leaves his paternal roof and lives under that of his master;
but when his master lives in the neighborhood he daily attends his
lessons from home.
The other great occasions for boys are at the end of school life, and
the admission to official service, the latter requiring a ceremony of
far greater importance and a more splendid banquet than the other.
The ceremonies performed for the benefit of female children are fewer
in number than those for their brothers. Generally only one ceremony
is performed, this being a festival for celebrating the advent of
girlhood, and consists of dressing her hair for the first time since
her birth. The dressing is done in a simple style. The hair is tied and
made to hang down behind in four braids, surmounted with a pretty hair
ornament made of red coral and turquoises. On this occasion a large
number of people are invited to a feast, and these bring to the house
various kinds of presents.
Boys’ amusements are much like those in Japan. In winter, for instance,
they play at snow-balling, and in summer their favorite sport is
wrestling. Throwing stones to a distance, pitching at a target with a
stone, skipping, either singly or in company, hitting from a distance
a small piece of hardened clay with another piece, or the striking
out from a circle marked on the ground a silver piece placed in its
centre by means of a stone or any other hard object--these are some
of the popular games of boys. Sometimes both boys and girls join
in theatricals. Ball-games are now and then seen, but not often.
Horse-riding too is a great amusement for boys, but only the sons
of rich families can indulge in this. Poorer boys have to content
themselves with mounting on improvised horses, such as rocks or logs of
wood.
The Tibetan girls do not differ much from those of other countries
in preferring quiet and refined games to the rough sports of their
brothers. Dolls are a favorite amusement, and then singing, which is
either theatrical (Aje-lhamo) or religious (Lama-mani). The latter
is associated with an interesting custom, and is an imitation of
“Lama-mani,” who go about the country singing or reciting in quaint
plaintive tones the famous deeds of the Buḍḍha, or high priests, or
even great warriors. These Lama-manis do not use instruments, but
possess pictures illustrating the popular historical accounts of those
mighty persons. The Tibetan girls sing those pieces, in imitation of
the recitation of the minstrels, one girl acting as conductor and the
rest of the juvenile company reciting in chorus, with now and then a
religious chant interposed.
I may mention here that Lama-manis are quite numerous in Tibet. In
winter and when the field work is suspended, they go on tour in the
provinces, but about the month of May, when the field-work is resumed
and the provincials are busy with it, the minstrels return to Lhasa
and ply their trade there. Their arrival at the capital generally
coincides with the appearance of the red dragon-flies, so these flies
are popularly known by the rather respectable name of ‘Lama-mani.’