soul of the deceased continues to haunt his residence.The shaman also serves as the repository of tribal folklore and beliefs. Through dance and dialogue, he instructs the audience in the traditional teachings of their ancestors, and by passing his knowledge and techniques down to his successor, those teachings remain intact for future generations.Rituals for curing the sick, guiding the soul of the dead to the netherworld, invoking a deity (divination), or visiting the heavens are performed by the shaman in a state of trance induced by frenetic dancing to the music of a drum or a string instrument. Elaborate, symbolic costumes and ritual objects that are used in the ceremony provide a dramatic and mystic spectacle. The expectations of the audience are directly connected with the purpose of the shamanic performance; but whether it is the hope that the patient would be cured or that the oracular communication be auspicious, those attending the shamanic performance do so with the expectation that the ritual will be an entertaining religious experience.Before the introduction of Buddhism in shamanic Central Asia, there were no centres for the performing arts in the usual sense of the word. Each shaman performed his dramatic arts at his own residence or environs as the occasion demanded. He had his own ritual costumes (religious dress) and paraphernalia, which displayed regional variations, particularly in ornamentation. The representation of animals and birds is common, and metallic objects (ceremonial object), which are thought to possess a soul and do not rust, are also important. For example, the costume of a Siberian Yakut shaman must have from 30 to 50 pounds (15 to 25 kilograms) of iron to be efficacious, while a Siberian Buryat shaman, except for an iron casque, or helmet, wears mostly furs. The metal ornaments represent such diverse things as the internal organs, bones, a woman's breasts, the Sun, or the Moon; but the object common to all shamans is a metal mirror, in which the shaman can see the souls of the 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 prosper