ABSTRACT
To a person standing on the outside observing the presence of a religion, ritual is the most obvious sign of the character and existence of believers in that faith. Ritual activities and their attendant buildings, clothes, and assorted paraphernalia provide the emblems of a religion and become, for the members of the religion themselves, modes for the expressions of their identity. Such ritual symbols also fulfi ll an obvious political function for the ruler, as a way of declaring his own dedication to the values embodied in the symbols and as a way of unifying his people behind him in one common symbolic expression.
