KUNMING Yunnan province, (Nov. 9) XINHUA - As drums rolled and horns blowed, eight muscular men dressed in red lama robes danced with their legs bent and arms circled in front of their chests. Lying ahead was a big oval stone weighing about 100 kilograms.

A man in his late twenties came in and tried to move the stone. It did not budge an inch and the man retreated blushing. Then came a man of stronger build. He managed to hold the stone in the arms, but he soon let it down, gasping for air, taking a beseeching look at a fortyish man standing nearby.

The elder man bent over and wrapped his arms around the stone. With a roar, he heaved the stone overhead and walked around the stage before putting it down, stunning the audience who, with their mouths wide open, forgot to applaud.

The stone-lifting is a sport most favored by lamas in Tibet and it is a demonstration event at China's Fifth Ethnic Games, which has attracted some 3,000 athletes from the nation's 55 ethnic minorities to Kunming, capital city of Southwest China's Yunnan province

It's proverbially known in China that Taoists have sword play or qigong, a mystical system of deep breathing exercises, to build up their health, and monks in buddist temples have their own way to keep fit, sitting in mediation or playing the various styles of boxing. But few from outside Tibet know how lamas keep healthy and strong.

Bianba Ciren, the one who came to the young men's rescue to lift the stone, dispelled some of the mystery surrounding the lamasery and offered a look at the sports practised by lamas.

"Hundreds of years ago, lamas began to lift stones to keep strong," said Bianba. "Now it has become the most popular way of workout in the lamasery." Bianba, a dance choreographer who loves body building, said he had met many lamas for advice and visited quite a few lamaseries which had paintings or frescoes depicting the stone-lifting by ancient lamas before he came here for the games.

"The lamasery always holds the competition to pick up the strongest man, " Bianba said. "The stones weigh between 100 to 250 kilograms. To make the competition more difficult, butter will be smeared all over the stone."

Bianba saw a thin and small lama lift a stone as heavy as 250 kilograms after the failed attempts by his muscular counterparts in a Tibetan traditional holiday last year.

"The stone-lifting needs as much brain as brawn," he said. "Strength of hercules alone is not enough. Holding the slick oval stone in the arms is a very technical job."

The wrestling was the other major sport for lamas, said Pingcuo Ciren, a Tibetan official who is attending the games.

"Lamas often wrestle each other after the ritual prays and the daily chore," said Pingcuo. "Their style of wrestling has no specific rules and anyone who holds his opponent to the ground is the winner."