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2005 - 2008 Celebration Date Contrast of Tibetan Festivals
Join one festive event during your visit in Tibet and it will surely add
more to your memory of the snowland.
Tibetan New Year is the most important festival in Tibet. It is an
occasion when Tibetan families reunite and expect that the coming year
will be a better one. Known as Losar, the festival starts from the first
to the third day of the first Tibetan month. Preparations for the festive
event are manifested by special offerings to family shrine deities,
painted doors with religious symbols, and other painstaking jobs done to
prepare for the event. Tibetans eat Guthuk (barley crumb food with
filling) on New Year's Eve with their families. Eating Guthuk is fun
since the barley crumbs are stuffed with a different filling to fool
someone in the family. The Festival of Banishing Evil Sprits is observed
after dinner. Signs that the New Year is approaching when one sees lit
torches, and people running and yelling to get rid of evil spirits from
their houses. Before dawn on New Year's Day, housewives get their first
buckets of water for their homes and prepare breakfast. After breakfast,
people dress up to go to monasteries and offer their prayers. People
visit their neighborhoods and exchange their Tashi Delek blessings in the
first two days. Feast is the theme during the occasion. On the third day,
old prayer flags are replaced with new ones. Other folk activities may be
held in some areas to celebrate the events.
Monlam, the Great Prayer Festival, falls on the fourth up to the eleventh
day of the first Tibetan month. The event was established in 1049 by
Tsong Khapa, the founder of the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama's order.
It is the grandest religious festival in Tibet. Religious dances are
performed and thousands of monks gather for chanting before the Jokhang
Temple. Examinations taking form of sutra debates for the Geshe degree,
the highest degree in Buddhist theology, are also held. Pilgrims crowd to
listen to the sermons while others give religious donations.
The Butter Lamp Festival, Chunga Choepa in Tibetan, falls on the
fifteenth day of the first Tibetan month. The event was also established
by Tsong Khapa to celebrate the victory of Sakyamuni against heretics in
a religious debate. Giant butter and Tsampa sculptures varying in forms
of auspicious symbols and figures are displayed on Barkhor. People keep
singing and dancing throughout the festive night.
On the fifteenth day of the fourth Tibetan month is Saka Dawa Festival.
The day is believed to be the time when Sakyamuni was born; stepped into
Buddhahood, and attained nirvana. Tibetans believe that a merit is an
accumulation of a myriad of merits from previous days, months or years.
People refrain from killing animals by liberating them and abstain from
eating meats. Sutra chanting, prayer turning, Cham dancing and other
religious activities dominate the occasion. Offering sacrifices to the
female deity enshrined in the temple on the islet of the Dragon King
Pond, boating in the pond and picnicking add more to the festive mood.
Shoton Festival, also known as the Yoghurt Festival, begins on the
thirtieth day of the sixth Tibetan month. The origin of the festival
started from the 17th century when pilgrims served yoghurt to the monks
who stopped for their summer retreat. Years later, Tibetan opera
performances were added to the event to amuse monks in monasteries.
During the festival, giant Thangkas of the Buddha are unveiled in Drepung
Monastery while Tibetan opera troupes perform at Norbulingka.
The Bathing Festival starts on the twenty-seventh day of the seventh
lunar month and lasts a week when Venus appears in the sky. Tibetans
bring food, set up tents along rivers and bathe themselves under the star
light. The holy bath was believed to heal all kinds of illnesses and
wards off misfortune.
Nakchu Horse Race Festival is the most important folk festival in Tibet.
People who gather for the annual horse race festival in Nakchu town
construct a tent city. Dressing themselves and their finest horse,
thousands of herdsmen participate in the thrilling horse race, archery
and horsemanship contest. Other folk activities and commodity fairs are
also held. The event falls on early August.
There are different versions of the origin of Gyangtse Horse Rave
Festival, which is also popular throughout Tibet. The festival usually
falls in June. Horse race, archery contest, and other games are performed
to entertain people. Religious activities also are part of the event.
Buddha Unfolding Festival is celebrated in Tashilhunpo Monastery from the
fourteenth to the sixteenth day of the fifth Tibetan month. Unbelievable
giant Thangkas of Amitayus, Sakyamuni and Maitreya are displayed on the
monastery's Thangka Walls. Thousands of pilgrims rush to the monastery to
give their offerings to the Buddhas for the accumulation of their merits.
The tradition has lasted for 500 years.
Tsong Khapa Butter Lamp Festival falls on twenty-fifth day of the tenth
Tibetan month. It is a festival when myriads of butter lamps are lit on
rooftops with prayers chanted to commemorate the loss of Tsong Khapa who
was a great religious reformer adept in Buddhism.
Paying homage to the Holy Mountain Festival (Choekhor Duechcen in
Tibetan) falling on the fourth day of the sixth Tibetan month
commemorates Sakyamuni's first sermon. People, in their best conduct
during the occasion, go to monasteries to pay their respects to the
Buddha. Circumambulation around the mountains is the popular practice
during the festival. Picnicking, singing and dancing are also part of the
event.
Universal Prayers Festival (Zamling Chisang in Tibetan) falls on the
fifteenth day of the fifth Tibetan month. The event commemorates
Padmasambhava's subjugation of evil spirits. People go to the monasteries
to burn juniper branches.
Harvest Festival (Ongkor in Tibetan) is celebrated when crops ripen,
usually around August. The festival is observed only in farming villages.
People walk around their fields to thank the gods and deities for a good
year's harvest. Singing, dancing, and horseracing are indispensable folk
activities.
2005 - 2008 Celebration Date Contrast of Tibetan Festivals
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Tibet Travel Reviews
Suddenly a monk, standing in front of the statue, pulled me closer and
put a white welcome scarf around me. He wanted me to participate in their
custom like all the other pilgrims. ------ Visiting the Sera Monastery by
ELCABRON
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