Festival Information

In Tsurpu monastery Tsurpu dance is being held to commemorate the Padmasambhava’s birthday. And on the 11^th June on the following day a large Koku banner of the Buddha Sakyamuni is displayed at the opposite of Tsurpu monastery.

In Tibetan Buddha’s Anniversary Festival is called “Saga Dawa”. Its common name is “The Festival of Setting Captive Animals Free”. The 15^th day of the fourth month of the Tibetan calendar is celebrated as the anniversary of Buddha’s birthday, completion of enlightenment and death (nirvana). It is said it is the commemoration day when princess Wen Cheng arrived in the Lhasa and the day when fairy maidens descend to the world to have a bath. During the festival, Monks will hold religious activities and Buddhists will honor Buddha and chant sutras. People circumambulate sacred places in a clock-wise direction and pray to Buddha. They gather by the Dragon King Pool and go boating, singing songs. They have picnics under the willows on the banks. It is said that the fourth month of the Tibetan calendar is Buddhism month, so in Tibet this festival is called “Saga Dawa”. In this month Tibetans should pay their homage to Buddha, chant sutras and make full-length prostrations circulating the Lhasa City. Domestic animals are not allowed to kill during this month. Since people should gain merit and accumulate virtue. They pray for a bumper harvest.

The Buddha’s Anniversary Festival lasts for three days in the fourth month of the Tibetan calendar on the 8^th, the 15^th and the 30^th of the fourth month.

The Buddha-unfolding Festival at Tashi Lhunpo monastery was created by the first Dalai Lama, Gendun Drupa about 500 years ago.

Immense silk appliqué Koku banners of Tusum Sangye, “the Buddhas of the Three Times”: (Opame, Shakyamuni and Gyelwa Jampa) are displayed on three consecutive days at Tashi Lhunpo. Cham dancing may be held in the monastery’s lower courtyard. The festival lasts for three days. Different portraits of Buddha are exhibited each day. They are hand-embroidered on silk or satin. The Buddha-unfolding Festival is an important religious activity at Tashi Lhunpo monastery for scripture chanting, prayer for rain and also a joyous festival for masses in rear Tibet.

Samye monastery dance is being held to commemorate the Padmasambhava, because Samye monastery was build by Padmasambhava. If you could visit during this occasion, it is said that one’s misdeeds will be eliminated.

In Tibetan, is also called “Lingka Festival” which means “Universal Incense Offering Day”. Its common name is “the suburbs of Lhasa from the 15^th day to the 20^th day of fifth month of the Tibetan calendar. The festival originated from one of the four major offerings, which were first made by Muni Puzan of the Tubo Kingdom. He reigned from 797-798 A.D. So the festival is also called “World Worship Buddha Day”. It says that every god will descend to the world and assemble together. People burn incense to pay their homage to the gods. The 15^th day of the fifth month, beginning of the festival. It is called “Khatujin” in Shigatse district. The other areas in Tibet also have such festival. During the festival, Tibetans dress up and carry butter tea, “Tsampa” and various delicious foods to parks. They have picnics and enjoy songs and dances there.

This festival is called “Tuk-pa Tse-shi” which means “the Fourth Day of the Sixth Month”. It is also called “Holy Mountains Festival”. It is the festival to celebrate the day of “Buddha Shakyamuni’s First Teaching” First Sermon and turn the Dharma wheel. On this day, people with food go to monasteries and temples to pay their homage to Buddha, to offer Joss sticks and to circumambulate holy mountains. Then they have picnics, relax, and enjoy themselves. They sing and dance in the fields. They do not go home until the sun has set.

In Tibetan the Horse racing Festival is called “Ta-gyuk”. Horse racing is the favorite traditional sports activity amongst Tibetans. It is popular in the grassland areas.

Tibet’s horsemanship has a long history. According to the historical data during the time of the Tubo Kingdom, there were messenger on horseback called” Postmen”. They often carried seven-inch gold arrows and rode from one post to another to carry messages. The postmen were called “flying bird envoys”. Gradually, it became a folk horse racing activity. The first horse racing festival in the history of Tibet was held in outer Tibet, in Shannan when people held the inauguration ceremony of Samye monastery (about 779 A.D.). The festival lasted for half of a month. The Horse racing Festival is celebrated at the end of the seventh month or at the beginning of the eighth month of the Tibetan calendar every year. Riders in colorful ancient Tibetan customs and with bows and arrows are agile and brave. Horseracing is called “Tama” in Gyantse. In history, the most famous horseracing was “Dam Jinren” in Damshung grassland. It had a similar form to the Tama” in Gyantse. The Horseracing lasts five to seven days. The main activities of the horseracing are concerned with interflow of commodities in pastoral areas. In Damshung, people added the event of Yak racing, the untrained yaks in red and green dash around madly to the shout of their riders. The occasion is special and unique. It is the most important festival in Northern Tibet during the golden season on the grassland. Thousands of herdsmen throng to Nagchu riding fine horses and carrying the local products. They form a city of tents South of Nagchu town. There will be thrilling horse race, archery and demonstrations of horsemanship. Songs and dance troupes from all parts of Tibet will add to the fun.

Horse race and archery are generally popular in Tibet, and Gyangtse enjoys prestige of being the earliest in history by starting in 1408. Contests in early times included horse race, archery, and shooting on gallop followed by a few days’ entertainment or picnicking. Presently, ball games, track and field events, folk songs and dances, barter trade are in addition to the above.

The huge thangka is displayed for only a half day in the morning on a hill of Ganden Monastery.

The huge thangka is displayed for only a half day in the morning on a hill beside Drepung monastery. This marks the start of Shoton Festival; after the Thangka comes down, the first opera dances are performed in the main courtyard. Sera monastery now displays a thangka as well, starting about the same time. Shoton means yogurt banquet. Legend has it that Tsong Khapa, the founder of the Yellow Sec made it a rule that all the Lamas must keep the mind on meditation from the fourth month to the sixth month of Tibetan year. Abstinence is broken by the end of the sixth month. Then they may go out and ordinary people would give them yogurt in charity and have picnic and entertainment. Hence the festival later became theatrical festival of Tibetan opera. So it is also called Tibetan Opera Festival. During the Shoton Festival, teams of Tibetan opera and theatrical troupes would come to Norbulingka to give performances for 4days and ordinary people would come there for picnicking. The scene is very lively and interesting.

Wongkor is the transliteration of the Tibetan word, which means “Looking around the Fields”. Its common name is, “the Wongkor Festival” (Harvest Festival). The Wongkor Festival is popular in Tibet, Ganshu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan where Tibetan farmers live. The festival has no fixed date. It is usually celebrated when crops are ripe, and it lasts three to five days. The Wongkor Festival has a history more than 1,500 years long. In former times, people celebrated the festival before “the Birds’ King” –the wild goose went south. Now days, Tibetans in Lhasa have combined the Wongkor Festival with the Army’s Day. However, Tibetans celebrated the festival at the middle of the seventh month in Gyangtse and Shigatse. After the festival, people start the intense autumn harvest.

In former times the Wongkor Festival was concerned with religion. During the festival, people walked around in the fields with scriptures and it is same now days, as well. Now it has gradually become a festival mainly concerned with arts, sports and entertainments. When people in the Lhasa area celebrate the festival, they dress up, hold colorful flags and ears of barley carry a “harvest tower” built with barley stalks and ears of barley. They sing and dance, beat drums and gongs and walk around the fields. On this day, people also enjoy horseracing, archery, opera, singing and dancing and sumptuous picnics. In the evening, people light up campfires and sing and dance all night long.

The Bathing Festival is called “Karma Duiba” in Tibetan, which means “the Star Venus”. Its common name is “the Bathing Festival”. This festival is the traditional folk holiday of Tibetans. On the whole of Tibetan plateau whether in towns or in the countryside, in pastoral areas or agricultural areas, people enjoy bathing at the end of the seventh month of the Tibetan calendar. At this time, the rainy season is just over and it is warm and sunny. Tibetan men and women, old and young, carry tents, curtains, beverages and food and go out in high spirits. They do not get out of rivers until Venus appears. The festival lasts for seven days once a year. The Washing Festival has a several hundred or eight hundred years long history. When astrology was introduced into Tibet in the eleventh century, people calculated seasons according to the regularity of the movement of the sun, the moon and the stars. They knew the appearance of Venus was the symbol of the change of the seasons. Considering the natural environment and the weather in Tibet, it is reasonable to choose autumn as Bathing Festival. Snow and ice melt in the spring and the water is very cold. It rains heavily in the summer and the water is muddy. Only in autumn is the water very clean. According to Buddhist doctrine, the water of early autumn has eight advantages: it is sweet, cold, soft, light, clean, fragrant, harmless to the throat and harmless to the stomach. In one word, autumn water is the best one for people. There are many moving fairy tales and legends about the Bathing Festival. One legend tells that long, long ago, there was a skillful doctor who could cure any diseases and he was very much loved by Tibetans. After he died, he became a god and continued to serve Tibetans. Every early summer, when Venus appeared, he poured magical water made from one hundred flowers into rivers. Then people could go to rivers to wash themselves, and bathing like this could cure sickness of any description for the whole year. There is another legend, which tells that there was a beautiful and kind girl long, long ago. An evil spirit trapped her for saving common people on a mountain. She could not enjoy the happiness in the world. Only when Venus appeared, could she have a bath in the river. In order to express their heartfelt thanks to the girl, people went to the river to accompany her. From then on, it became a festival once a year and has lasted until now.

On this day most of the Tibetan go to Drepung monastery to see the Naga Stupa, which is a holy stupa in Drepung monastery.

Cham Dances at Tashi Lhunpo monastery for 4 days.

The Gods Descending Festival is called “Lhabap Tuichen” in Tibetan. It is one of the major Tibetan Buddhist Festivals. The legend tells that the 22^nd day of the ninth month of the Tibetan calendar was the day when the 33year old Buddha Shakyamuni preached a sermon to his mother in Tushita Heaven and then descended to the world. This day every monastery is open for the whole day. In monasteries, all butter lamps are alight and Buddhists pay their homage to the Buddha and offer Joss sticks and chant scriptures to gain merit and accumulate virtue for future luck and happiness.

Long ago, when Tibet was in danger of large-scale invasion, the Kongpo people sent out an army to defend their homeland. It was in September and the soldiers worried that they might miss the New Year, highland barley wine and other good things. So people had the Tibetan New Year on the 1^st of October ahead of time. To memorize those brave soldiers Kongpo people present three sacrifices stay up at night from then on. And now it has become the Kongpo Festival for entertainment like Kongpo dancing, horse race, archery and shooting.

The Fairy Maiden Festival is called “Paile Retoi” in Tibetan, which means “Pal-Lhamo Parade Festival”. Every 15^th day of the tenth month of the Tibetan calendar, monks carry the statue of the Fairy Maiden in the Fairy Maiden chapel of the Jokhang Temple and parade around Lhasa. It is said that the maiden will meet her husband “Drip Zongzan” on that day. So when Monks parade around the southern suburbs of Lhasa, they turn to south and look at Drip Zongzan from the other side of the river. This ceremony used to be presided over by the abbot of the Ganden Monastery. During the festival, there are various activities to do with gods descending. Now days it is being celebrated by offering local Chang and alcohols to the Pal-Lhamo at Jokhang Temple. Lhasa women begs for money to men for buying hard drinks or Chang, so women are more active and they think of the festival as a holiday for Tibetan women.

Jampa Chenpo’s pass away from this world day.

In Tibetan Tsong Khapa’s Festival is called “Ganden Ngamcho”. The 25^th day of the tenth month of the Tibetan calendar is the anniversary of the death of Tsong Khapa, the founder of Gelukpa sec. On this night of the day, countless butter lamps are lit on the roofs of every monastery and lay person’s house in order to commemorate Tsong Khapa. It is a religious service with illumanation, and this is observed in every house.

Before New Year’s Eve, every family has a general cleanings, washing articles and puts New Year pictures on the wall. In the evening of the 29^th (Tibetan calendar) all members of the family have a “happy dinner” together. The dinner is just like a “family reunion dinner” which Han Chinese has on the evening of the 30^th December (Chinese calendar). The dinner symbolizes the bidding of farewell to the outgoing year and welcoming in the coming year, and driving out the disasters and troubles. The cooked wheaten food, which the whole family has, is called “Guthuk” in Tibetan. It’s named according to the date; “Gu” means nine (29^th). “Thuk” means paste (it is called “Thukba” in Tibetan) “Thukba” contains stone, hot pepper, wool and charcoal, are rolled in the paste balls. Symbols of sun and moon are made of the dough. What people eat should throw up on the spot in order to add aesthetic mood. If people eat stone, they will have a hard heart in the coming year. Hot pepper means frankness and out-spoken, wool means mildness and calmness; charcoal means heartlessness while sun and moon means honorability. On the New Year’s Day, families unite “auspicious dipper” is offered and the auspicious words “Tashi Delek” are greeted.