The Ladakh Festival was the first week of September. Normally, it runs from September 1st to September 15th, but this year they only held it for one week. They wanted to keep it low key due to the upcoming elections in Kashmir. Still, I was impressed.

Regarding the elections, they are being held this week in all of Kashmir, and there has been some violence this month in Srinigar and Jammu. But Ladakh, where I am, is peaceful as always. These elections are being watched closely by the West, to make sure that they are held fairly. But, the word on the street here is that they will be rigged and that Omar Abdullah and his party will win. Omar's grandfather Sheikh Abdullah founded the National Conference Party, which is the party pushing for Independence from India for Kashmir. The logic is that if they are an independent Islam country Pakistan will stop fighting to take it from India. Sheikh's son Farooq Abdullah was in charge of the party for many years until this past spring when he handed over the reins to Omar. Farooq had hopes of becoming India's vice president, but those hopes were smashed when prime minister Vajpayhee appointed another Muslim as president. Farooq, knowing India could never have a Muslim in both spots resigned. Omar, however is not popular like Farooq and Sheikh were. This is because he is an outsider and only returned to Kashmir when his father resigned. So, these elections will be very spicy.

Back to the Ladakh festival. They started on the 1st of this month and finished on the 7th. I saw music and dances by both the local culture and the monks. And, I saw archery and polo matches, both being events I'd never miss if ever here again in September. Throughout the week, various nearby villages had cultural events, music and dances, and at the end of the week the village that put on the best show won an award.

OPENING CEREMONIES, September 1st.
The opening ceremonies consisted of a huge parade, followed by cultural dances at the polo field. These I missed, as nothing here is ever advertised. People only know these things by word of mouth. I had been told that the parade would go from the Lamden School grounds through Main Bazaar to the polo field, and that there, there would be cultural events all afternoon. But, I was told 9:00 AM. I was there, but nothing happened, so I went to church. You guessed it! During the sermon, the various villages with their drums and sornas paraded past the church competing with God's word. These sornas are like bad oboes with a large vibrato and are louder than bagpipes. You get the picture. By the time church was over and I got changed into comfortable clothes and to the polo field, people were leaving. But, I met a friend there, who actually had a printed schedule of events. The tourist office I went to didn't even have that!

ARCHERY, September 2.
The next village east of here, Sabu, had two nights of archery. I found someone with a car and went over there after school. The event ran from 4:00 until 9:00. The archery area was set up with tents in a horseshoe shape. To the north were the musicians under one tent. To the west were the archers and a few spectators. To the south were larger long tents with two rows of ornate carved and painted Ladakhi tables. I want to buy two of these to bring back home with me next summer. Behind each table were futons with Tibetan rugs over them on which people squatted, knelt or sat. The back row of tables had locals with their traditional Ladakhi costumes. The ladies had brown long robes, which they wear all year long no matter what the weather is, and a belt. On their heads were the typical colorful hats which have a higher front for the face and the sides turned up. On their feet were the slippers with the toes turned up. The men had different kinds of robes and their hats had fur on the sides. The slippers were the same. By the front row of futons and tables was where foreigners like myself sat. To the east was the target. Also to the east was the road. Part of the entertainment was watching spectators approach as archers were shooting!
The archery was low key. The target was maybe 50 feet or less away from where they shot. It consisted of hay bales with a black circular target. In the center of the target was a white disc that served as a bulls eye. There was a scoreboard indicating two teams, but I couldn't tell who was who. They also weren't very good. At certain points, they had western tourists take a try at the archery. I didn't do too well shooting, but neither did most of the westerners. In India, the most prevalent group of tourists are from Israel, and they do not have a good reputation here. I can see why. One lady from Israel wanted to shoot, and the people said that tradition had it that only men shot. She argued for 20 minutes, and finally left.
There were two sets of archery, each one consisting of the archers shooting until the whole large bucket of arrows was either stuck in the hay, on the ground in front of the target, or in the field beyond the target. After the second set of archery, there was a time of native dance. The locals from behind me got up and did a dance in a circle, and it took forever for them to make a complete circle. The dance steps are very tiny and intricate. There would be one small step, then bringing the feet together while bending the knees and other such patterns. The last dance, they again had the tourists go up there to make fools of themselves. I actually did quite well, as once you learn the pattern, it is the same. You hold one end of a towel forward in one hand while the other end is over the shoulder and at the other side held by the other hand. I was laughing at the Hindi ladies from Delhi who had no clue at this dance.
I must finally mention about the musicians. There were 3 drummers and 3 sorna players. The drummers each had two drums of equal size, but pitched differently. The lower pitched one, they kept moist with water. Whenever a dignitary came in, they got louder, and the sornas played a different melody. The district commissioner was there, as was the head of tourism for Kashmir. He was from Srinigar and sat next to me. The sorna players play these instruments with double reeds that sound like bagpipes. They play along with the archery the same song. When someone hits a bullseye, they immediately change tunes until the next bullseye. But, mostly they improvise. I went over there at one point, and they let me play along with one set of archery!

POLO, September 5. I was disappointed by the polo today. It has the reputation of being rough and hard fought. But, the score was something like 13 to nothing. One team could ride better, but the other team could hit the ball with the sticks better. Still, it was good to see.

POLO, September 6. Today made up for yesterday. It was the finals between the local civilian team, and the Ladaki Scouts. The Ladakhi Scouts are an army regiment made up of locals from this area, and this match is looked forward to by everyone here. The army bunch of spectators across the stadium from me was a rowdy bunch! The polo match today was rough. Both teams were very good, and they played the ball from wherever it lay, including in the audience. There was no safe place in the stadium. I felt most sorry for the horses, as their legs must be sore now from getting hit by the sticks and the ball. A little how it works. It is like hockey on horse (or soccer). But, they start running at full gallop towards each other. Depending on which side is their goal, they will either hit forward or backhanded, and the better players could do either equally well. At one point today, two riders were racing towards each other and swung at the same time. The one stick broke and went flying 50 or more feet into the air. Sending the rider racing to the end of the field where someone handed him another stick. Another time, a rider came off a horse, and that horse did not want to be mounted again. It took 3 people to chase him down and hold him. There was one fistfight, where half the spectators also ran onto the field, and one ambulance run after another rider came off a horse. And, the ball is ALWAYS in play, unless someone is off a horse. As soon as there is a goal, both goalies race towards the other end, as they switch goals. Meanwhile, someone from the team who just scored races towards mid-field to drop the ball and take the first swing. So, that goalie better be across the field before then!

MONK DANCING, September 7.
This was interesting. The monks put on masks and fancy costumes and dance different dances than the non-religeous ones described earlier. These are almost like the Tibetan dances I've seen, and are primarily to ward off evil spirits or welcome the 4 winds from the 4 directions. Accompanying these dances were old (actually ancient) monks playing drums, cymbals, a relative of the sorna, and a brass instrument that were 6-foot gradual cone shapes. These are the instruments that you hear if you watch movies like "Seven Years in Tibet." On my way back from the monk ceremony, someone called my name. I looked, and it is Sinon Chostor, who was a ponyman for one of my treks two years ago. He invited me to his house this winter for a meal, and I told him I wanted him and his horses for a trek I am planning next July.

CLOSING CEREMONIES. September 7.
Later on the same day, I went back to the polo field for the closing ceremonies. As is typical in India, foreigners got seats right down front, and the locals are back about 25 yards. I like that, but feel uncomfortable about getting preference over others like that. But all over India, they do this. Even the trains have special foreign booking offices with quotas of train seats for foreigners. I got my Calcutta to Delhi train ticket 1 day in advance of when I left, whereas locals' tickets were sold out two weeks prior on the Radjhani Express. Anyway, the dances were the same as described earlier. But, each village took part in the procession. Each one had 2 sorna players and 3 drummers. These all congregated together and played together. There were 21 drummers and 14 sorna players. The sound of those sornas was painful!!! The sound was the same, but much louder than the band of bagpipers that also played today. In fact, they didn't even all play the same thing at the same time, and the cacophony sounded like about a dozen cats getting their paws and/or their tails stepped on. They accompanied dancers, and also a mock wedding ceremony. They were good actors, and the father and uncle of the bride pretended they were drunk. In all, it was a great week, and I don't think I've forgotten anything that I saw.