Untitled - Life and Culture on the Tibetan Plateau

wore western-style suits or jackets. They began arriving at
the hair changing ritual at around four-thirty p.m. on fourteen
motorcycles.
The helpers were busy preparing to take chang bsu to
the A zhang. The helpers chose six young men to take chang
bsu at ston gros. Mkhas grub <strong>and</strong> Bun phreng rdo rje took the
first chang bsu. They took a kha btags, a bottle of Yiping
Huzhu liquor with wool tied around the bottle neck, <strong>and</strong> a
bowl with three bits of butter stuck on the bowl lip. They
went to Sgo kha, which is located just northeast of Brag
dmar nang Village at five p.m., <strong>and</strong> waited for the A zhang
for a half hour. When they met the A zhang both of them said
together:
ཨ་ཞང་ཚང་མ་ལོ་སར་བཟང་འ།
Happy Lo sar to all the A zhang!
The A zhang replied together:
བཟང་། ཁྱོས་གཉིས་ཀ་ལོ་སར་བཟང་འ།
Happy Lo sar to the two of you!
Mkhas grub presented kha btags to the A zhang zhang
bo, Dngos grub, <strong>and</strong> offered a bowl of liquor to him. Then
the two of them offered a bowl of liquor to others in the
group. Most drank only a little; females <strong>and</strong> children only
offered mchod kha.
Mkhas grub <strong>and</strong> Bun phreng rdo rje were unable to
escape after they finished offering the liquor. The A zhang
offered a bowl of liquor to each of them, <strong>and</strong> they drank it
all.
'jam dpal rdo rje <strong>and</strong> 'jigs byed were the second chang
bsu takers <strong>and</strong> waited for the A zhang at Ra rgan lung ba
(500 meters from Dpal mo mtsho's home) with what was just
described. They gave the greetings described above <strong>and</strong> then
'jigs byed quietly asked the A zhang zhang bo, "To whom
should I present kha btags?"
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