of Chang'an, and also played by women, who wore male dress to do so; many Tang dynasty tomb figures of female players survive. According to The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, the popularity of polo in Tang China was "bolstered, no doubt, by the presence of the Sasanian court in exile". A "polo-obsessed" noblewoman was buried with her donkeys on 6 October 878 in Xi’an, China. Modern game India and Britain The modern, international, game of polo is derived from the form played in Manipur, India, where it was known as . Also in use in Manipur were the game's Tibetic names, or , referring to the wooden ball, and it was these terms, anglicised, which were adopted for the sport's name in its slow spread to the west. A European polo club was established in the town of Silchar in Assam, India, in 1859, the English tea planters having learnt it from Manipuri incomers. The origins of the game in Manipur are traced to yet earlier precursors of . This was one of three forms of hockey in Manipur, the other ones being field hockey (called ) and wrestling-hockey (called ). Local rituals such as those connected to the , the winged-pony god of polo and the creation-ritual episodes of the festival enacting the life of his son, , the polo-playing god of sports. These may indicate an origin earlier than the historical records of Manipur. Later, according to , a royal chronicle of King Kangba, who ruled Manipur much earlier than Nongda Lairen Pakhangba () introduced ( on horseback'). Further regular playing of this game commenced in 1605, during the reign of King Khagemba under newly framed rules of the game. In Manipur, polo is traditionally played with seven players to a side. The players are mounted on the indigenous Manipuri Pony, which stands less than . There are no goal posts, and a player scores simply by hitting the ball out of either end of the field. Players strike the ball with the long side of the mallet head, not the end. Players are not permitted to carry the ball, although blocking the ball with any part of the body except the open hand is permitted. The sticks are made of cane, and the balls are made from the roots of bamboo. Players protected their legs by attaching leather shields to their saddles and girths. In Manipur,