A Tibetan text (pecha) on modern paper. Handwritten in "headless" Tibetan dbu med (Ume) script, Title is (Tib. སྲིད་པ་གཉའ་རབས་ཀྱི་གཞུང་གླུ་མཁས་པ་དགའ་བའི་གཏམ་བརྒྱུད་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་བཞུགས་སོ། Wylie. srid pa gnya' rabs kyi gzhung glu mkhas pa dga' ba'i gtam brgyud zhes bya ba bzhugs so). The owner suggests the alternative title of (Tib. སྲིད་པ་མིའུ་ཐུང་ཞེས་པ་བཞུགས་སོ། Wylie srid pa mi'u thung zhes pa bzhugs so) These are ancient wedding songs describing a competition between two groups of nyahon ( the nang nyawa, "inside" team of singers, respresenting the bride and the chi nyawa, the outside team of singers representing the groom). A small figure (Tib. མིའུ་ཐུང་ Wylie mi'u thung ) made from dough is hidden and its whereabouts described to the outside team who have to locate it whilst singing) The nyawon then has to pick it up with his sword. Then the nang nyawa start to ask riddles and questions. This wedding ritual is no longer commonly performed.
Extent: One book consisting of ten folios, folded and stiched with thread.
Size and dimensions of original material: Each folio is 41 cm x 8.5 cm, folding to 20.5 cm x 8.5 cm.
Condition of original material: Some staining and discoloration from use. Perfectly legible throughout, the text is written in blue and also grey/black ink. Some text is highlighted or underlined in orange pen.
Custodial history: All the material was passed to the current owner by his father Labu Chherring, who inherited the bulk of the material from his father, Tsering Tashi Labu's grandfather. All three men trained to become amchi, doctors in the Tibetan tradition. Father and grandfather were, in addition, singers (nyahon) and speechmakers (molawa).
Arrangement: All the material was kept in the prayer room of Tsering Tashi Labu's house (unseen). The precise country of origin is unknown. However it is almost certain that the original text was created in Tibet, though the specific material in question may have been copied locally in Spiti (India) at a later date.
