works as the black-hat devil dance. Although of shamanic origin, the costume of the black-hat dancers is said by the Buddhists to represent the black disguise worn by Dpal-gyirdo-rje, a 9th-century Tibetan monk who assassinated the fanatic anti-Buddhist king, Glang-dar-ma.The black-hat dancers are followed by a variety of performers, including those wearing monstrous masks (mask) representing a host of evil spirits that harass mankind, those costumed as skeletons and wearing skull masks, and those representing Indian teachers of Buddhism. There are also masked dancers representing the tutelary deities of Buddhism, and the most impressive of all is the Choskyi-rgyal-po (King of the Religion), who wears a mask fashioned after the head of a bull, which is emblematic of the aspect of the deity that vanquishes the Lord of the Dead. It is this dancer who dismembers an effigy of a corpse and scatters the parts in a simulation of the sacrificial and expulsional elements of the ancient shamanic dance rituals.The dance is not all macabre. Comic relief is provided by a dancer wearing a mask with an expression of stupidity. This buffoon represents Ho-shang, the Chinese monk who was defeated in an 8th-century debate on the merits of Indian versus Chinese Buddhism. Ho-shang is represented in the 'cham of the Sherpas of Nepal by a dancer wearing a mask portraying a balding, bearded old man, called Mi-tshe-ring (Long-Life Man), who delights the audience by his farcical antics and pratfalls.The whole of the 'cham performance, which takes two or three days, is a visual presentation of the fear of demons and monstrous creatures and the way in which Buddhism serves to alleviate that fear. The audience is reassured that the good forces of religion have neutralized the evil powers of demonic spirits, and so the new year will be a prosperous one. This religious dance is performed on varying scales of grandeur in monasteries throughout the Buddhist cultures of Central Asia, but the most magnificent of all is its performance in Lhasa for the Dalai Lama, the ruler of Tibet.Buddhist morality plays (morality play)The last performing-arts genre to develop in Central Asia was the Buddhist morality play, called a-che-lha-mo. The plays are based on the lives of legendary and historical figures, and through costume and masks the ethnic origin and ethical character of the players are revealed. Folktales, as well as historical and Buddhist canonical literature, are sources for the stories presented in a-che-lha-mo. Most plays are about mythical heroes who prove that Buddhism and its virtues conquer all evil in the end; but there are those that tell the story of historical personages.Although traditions among the Central Asian peoples are vague about the development of shamanic rituals and 'cham, they are clear about the origin of a-che-lha-mo and even point out the historical creators of the art. Some scholars regard the plays as derivatives of Indian theatre, but Tibetan tradition claims that the first performance of a morality play was produced by Thang-stong rgyal-po, a famous bridge builder of the 15th century.One story tells of some Tibetans who were building a bridge and found that whatever they assembled during the day, demons dismantled at night. Thang-stong rgyal-po, a holy man well versed in the capricious ways of demons, advised the Tibetans to stage a play to divert the attention of the evil spirits. By this stratagem, they were able to complete the bridge. This story would seem to indicate that the primary purpose of the play was to entertain, but another story illustrates that Thang-stong rgyal-po realized that religious teachings would have a greater influence on the people if they were dramatized, so he developed the morality play to serve this purpose. Regardless of his intent, a-che-lha-mo evolved as didactic entertainment, and Thang-stong rgyal-po is regarded by the Tibetans as its patron saint.From primitive beginnings, the morality plays developed into a popular performing art, complete with stylized costumes and masks, complex scenar