e dead. Regardless of the variations in dress, the purpose and performance of the rituals remain essentially the same, whether carried out by a Buddhist monk among the Sherpas of Nepal or by a true shaman among the Siberian Yakut.The shamanic rituals of the steppe and desert peoples have analogies among the dramatic arts of the Himalayan kingdoms, where, because of the tolerance of local beliefs and rituals, many shamanic practices were adopted into Tibetan Buddhism. For example, the State Oracle of Tibet, a monk whose oracular powers were exercised on behalf of the government and the monastic system, was regarded as a high-ranking ecclesiastic, yet his ritualistic performances were no different than those of shamanic mediums throughout Central Asia. The adaptation of the psychopompic role of the shaman into Tibetan Buddhism resulted in the recitation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead to the corpse. This book describes in detail the frightening apparitions the deceased encounters day after day while in the 49-day interval between death and rebirth, and its reading is analogous to the shaman's narration of his journey to the underworld.Buddhist ritualBuddhist monastic danceThe second major genre of the performing arts to develop in Central Asia was 'cham, the ritualistic dance performed in Buddhist monasteries. The origin of 'cham may well be an older form of shamanic ceremonial dance in Tibet, but centuries of evolution within a Buddhist-dominated society led to the recasting of the roles and theme of the dance in keeping with Buddhist dogma. 'Cham, which was introduced along with Tibetan Buddhism into Mongolia and certain parts of southern Central Asia in the 16th century, became the principal form of religious entertainment in eastern Central Asia.The origins of 'cham lie in Tibet's dim past, long before the introduction of Buddhism. Initially, it was performed as a ritual to drive out evil spirits and to appease the guardian spirits by means of human and animal sacrifices, thus assuring an auspicious and prosperous new year. According to Tibetan tradition, the ancient shamanic dance was adapted as a Buddhist one by Padmasambhava, the Indian tantric teacher who introduced Buddhism into Tibet in the 8th century AD. He is said to have interpreted the dance as symbolizing the victory of Buddhism over the shamanism of Tibet, and, since blood sacrifices are abhorrent to a Buddhist, these traditional elements were simulated by clever techniques using effigies and red-coloured substances.Sectarianism developed in Tibetan Buddhism in the 11th century, primarily as a reaction to the unreformed teachings of Padmasambhava and his followers; nevertheless, each of the sects retained the monastic dance as part of their religious repertoire. The reformed Yellow Hat sect (Dge-lugs-pa) changed the time for its performance from the birthday of Padmasambhava to the end of the official year, which would coincide with the lunar month from the middle of January to the middle of February.The acceptance and spread of Buddhism led to the eventual establishment of monastic communities throughout eastern Central Asia. These monasteries became fixed centres for the performance of 'cham. Every monastery of adequate size and monastic population maintained its own masks, costumes, props, and musical instruments. In spite of regional and sectarian variations, the performance of 'cham remains basically the same. The stage is set outdoors in the courtyard of the monastery called the 'cham-ra (dance enclosure). With the exception of high lamas and members of the nobility who sit on special seats, the audience stands or sits around on the edge of the dance floor or ground. The musicians with horns and drums take their places, usually under a cloth canopy. Then, accompanied by music, the various dancers emerge from a building or from behind a stage curtain and perform. The first to appear are dancers wearing wide-brimmed black hats topped with a simulated human skull. The costume of these dancers has led to the performance being referred to in some Western 