Mani Rimdu Festival, Thyangboche Monastery Nepal Himalaya

Nov, 1979, Thyangboche Monastery, in the upper Khumbu Valley of the Himalayas, sitting under Ama Dablam. We'd arrived several days earlier for the Mani Rimdu fall dance festival. We were starting our 5th week of trekking. Nowadays many people fly into Namche Bazaar and hike to Thyangboche in a day or two. We had taken about 10 days to hike to Namche from the roadhead at Lamosamu, gaining and losing almost 50,000' of elevation. Then we spent several weeks climbing a 21,000 foot trekking peak, and exploring isolated valleys. We had timed our trip so that we'd have time to spend several days at the monastery during the fall harvest festival of Mani Rimdu

 Late that night, with the full moon shining, we were aroused from sleep by the long horns. Our sirdar, Ang Kami came to our tent and led us into the monastery to observe the ceremonies. The rites were much like the Solemn High Mass of Catholicism, many celebrants, and ritualized singing and incense offerings. All the monks hold either a thunderbolt dorje or bells
 
  
The next day was Tshe-wang [Life Conservation] a public opening ceremony where local farmers brought offerings as thanks for their harvest, and the monks gave blessing for the next year. We could also attend the rehearsals for the upcoming dances. The monks dressed in the most elaborate capes and hats we�d seen, intricately embroidered with gold. A silver lined skull � cup is brought out to distribute tshe-chang [life spirit], and then passed around for everyone to take a drink. Meanwhile, the locals are filling baskets with torma for offerings [and used to feed the audience at the performance]. Each basket is brought forward, with chanting, blessed, then carried out. Finally, preceded by two horns so large they need noviate monks to carry the front of them, the lama returns to the monastery.

Just after sunrise, much like the long horn solos of Siegfried, the long Alpen horns rang out again across the mountain valleys calling us to the courtyard. Then 2 monks with the smaller, clarinet type horns climbed to the uppermost cupola and played the final series of calls 
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 Shortly afterward, the performance began with the Tsam-li-bulu [�Dance of Showing�]. The musical accompaniment consisted of a variety of horns and cymbals, and often included cymbals and small drums played by the dancers. We sat in the balcony, among an everchanging crowd, mostly of local Nepalese who had come to the monastery for the festival. As the day proceeded, bamboo trays of fried snacks, cookies [contributed by westerners] and peanuts would be passed around, and the monks brought bowls of yogurt with rice.  

 
The crowd overlapped the dance area of the courtyard, and that contributed to the performance. Many of the early dances included high whirling kicks, often over the heads of the spectators. Interspersed among the dances were comic acts, and a fakir who balanced on the tip of a sword.

 I had brought a book by one of the First American climbers of Everest, Lute Jerstad, who came back to Nepal as part of his doctorate research. The Nepalis around me noticed the pictures and soon the book was being passed around, everyone naming each of the dancers pictured,

The scripted performance ended about sundown and the crowd dispersed for dinner. Then later in the evening many people gathered again in the courtyard for the people�s performance. The locals taught us the simple circle dance. The repetitive steps, monotonous chanting and hot cups of fresh chang created a mystical effect and the perfect ending to a magnificent day.