throughout Bhutan. These clowns also dance with their holy whips and wooden phalluses. On a road drive from Paro airport to Thimpu these explicit paintings of phalluses are a common sight on “white-washed walls of homes, shops and eateries.” In the Chimi Lhakhang monastery, the shrine dedicated to Drukpa Kunley, several wooden penises are seen being used to bless people who visit the monastery on pilgrimage seeking blessings to bear a child or for welfare of their children. The glaringly displayed phallus in the monastery is a brown wooden piece with a silver handle, a religious relic considered to possess divine powers and hence used for blessing the spiritually oriented people. It is also said to prevent quarrels among family members in the houses which are painted with these symbols. House warming ritual An interesting ritual is performed in Bhutan, as part of house warming ceremony of new houses, which entails erecting the phallus symbols at the four corners of the eaves of the house and one inside the house. It involves raising of a basket filled with the phalluses carved out of wood to the roof of the house to fix them at the four cardinal corners. Groups of both men and women get hired by the owner of the house in raising the basket to the roof. While the men pull the basket up with a rope tied securely from the roof, women try to pull it down; during this process, ribald phallic songs are sung and with every pull the people watching the fun shout "laso". A mock exercise is enacted by the men as if they have failed to lift the basket and the basket is dropped to the ground. The intention is to get free hooch (spirit) from the owner of the house so that they get energised to raise the basket. Following the free drinking binge, the men finally rise the basket to the roof and fix the phalluses at the four corners of the roof at the eve ends. The phalluses are also tied with a dagger (redi) and painted in five different colours; the colours are said to be significators of five divine expressions: "White dagger representing peace, purity, and harmony, a red coloured dagger representing wealth and power is placed on the west, the yellow dagger representing prosperity is placed on the south, and on the north is placed the green