Tibet Major Events & Festivals
Tibet not only celebrates the major Chinese holidays, but is
also host to its own unique and exciting holidays such as the
Bathing Festival, the Prayer Festival, and much more.Tibetan
festival culture is an important component of Tibetan folkloric
culture, ancient culture and religious culture.Tibetan festivals
have multiple origins and qualities.
The establishment of Tibetan New Year has close relationship
with usage of Tibetan calendar, which can date back to more than
950 years ago.From then on, it became a survival of the past.Tibetans start preparing for New Year Holiday in Dec of Tibetan
calendar.During the process, whole families will infuse barley
seeds in basins.
On the New Year Eve, every family will present all kinds of
foods in front of Buddha images and keep busy preparing deep
into the night, so that there will be plentiful food during the
holiday.On the first day of the Tibetan New Year (first day
of lunar calendar), the first thing Tibetans must do is send
one family member to take a barrel of water home from the river,
the first barrel of water in the new year is called auspicious
water.
From the second day, relatives and friends begin to visit each
other and celebrate the New Year, which will lasts 3 to 5 days.During the festival, people will play Guozhang or Guoxie dance
at the squares or open grasslands with the accompaniment of guitars,
cymbals, gongs and other musical instruments.Hand in hand,
arm in arm, Tibetans dance in a circle while singing following
the rhythm by stamping their feet.Children, on the other hand,
will fire firecrackers.A happy, harmony and auspicious festival
atmosphere will pervade the whole area.
The Ox Festival derives from Tibetans' awareness of the importance
of the ox in agriculture.During their daily labor, they gradually
produced strong feeling to the ox, and consequently, numerous
phenomena of the ox culture came into being.
The ox was regarded as god and became the best sacrifice for
divinities.So then the Ox Festival finally emerged.It starts
from the 15th day of the 8th month in Tibetan year and usually
lasts more than 10 days or even one month sometimes, with generally
more than 1,000 people.
During this process, people will ask "heiba" (wizard) to recite
scriptures, play yak horn and kill tens of yaks or over 100 sheep,
drinking freely and talking noisily.In the past, because of
the high expenses, this large sized fair was held only once every
one hundred years.Moreover, members who take part in Ox Festival
share the same blood relationship.So, it is placed among the
cultural festivals of ancestors worship.
The Great Prayer Festival falls on the fourth up to the eleventh day
of the first Tibetan month.It is the grandest religious festival in
Tibet.Monks of Dreprang Monastery, Sera Monastery and Gaden Monastery
will assemble in Jokhang Monastery for the occasion.
This festival dates back to 1049 when Tsong Khapa, the founder of the
Gelu sect, held a praying ceremony in Lhasa.Examinations taking form
of sutra debates for the Geshe degree, the highest degree in Buddhist
theology, were also held.Pilgrims from other places in Tibet crowded
to listen to the sermons while others give religious donations.After
that, it is continuously enlarged and enriched, becoming a fixed and
popular religious festival and lasting until today, with a larger size
than ever before.
The grand Butter Lamp Festival falls on the 15th day of the first Tibetan
month, the last day of Great Prayer Festival.In the daytime, people
will go to monasteries to worship Buddhas and pray.At night, a lamp
festival will be held on the Barkhor Street in Lhasa, where there will
be lots of shelves filled with colorful and various images such as gods,
figures, birds, animals, flowers and trees.Meanwhile, you can also
enjoy the puppet show.Thousands of lamps just like the shining stars
falling from the sky, which takes on a splendid look.
| Buddha's Birth, Death & Enlightenment Festival |
Buddha's Birth, Death and Enlightenmen Festival, also known as the
Saka Dawa Festival, held on the 15th day of the fourth month in the
Tibetan calendar is a day to celebrate the day when the Sakyamuni was
born, achieved nirvana and passed away.It is also a traditional festival
for Tibetan people.
April in Tibetan calendar is Buddha Month, so it is called "Saka Dawa"
in Tibetan.On this day, in accordance with their conventions, Tibetans
will dress themselves in their holiday best and assemble at the Dragon
King Pool behind the magnificent Potala Palace to celebrate this grand
religious festival.
After long period of development, it gradually evolves into a mass
festival for Tibetans to visit parks in spring and summer and pray for
a good harvest in agriculture and animal husbandry.During this festival,
some people set up colorful tents; some prepare barley wine and butter
tea, families resting beside the pool with great joy.Then young Tibetans
dance in a circle while singing following the rhythm by stamping their
feet.
The Bathing Festival falls in the first ten days of the 7th month in
Tibetan calendar.Tibetans believe July is the best time for bathing
as a religious ceremony.As a conventional festival in Tibet, it has
a long history of seven or eight hundred years at least.
The Yoghurt Festival is one of grandest festivals in Tibet."Shoton"
means yoghurt in Tibetan.The origin of the festival started from the
17th century.According to the rule of Gelu sect of Tibetan Buddhism,
the 6th month in Tibetan calendar was the retreat period when monks
and nuns of all monasteries were prohibited from going out to avoid
stamping on or hurting little bugs.
Then, on the 1st day of the 6th month in Tibetan year when
the ban was lifted, they went down the hill one after another.And
the peasants and herdsmen would serve yoghurt to them.
During the festival, Tibetans, no matter male or female, old or young,
will pour into Norbulingka Summer Palace in knots, with colorful bags
on back and barley wine barrels in hand.Some will set up tents, put
carpet on the ground, and lay out barley wine, dishes and other holiday
foods.
Horseracing is a favorite activity for Tibetans.It not only provides
a good place to assemble and exchange experience in agriculture and
animal husbandry in spare time, but also shows the spirit of Tibetans.Consequently, horse racing has become an indispensable activity in almost
all the Tibetan festivals, including the Yoghurt Festival, that are
handed down and spread among the people.
The Ongkor Festival is a festival for Tibetans to celebrate agricultural
harvest once a year."Ong" refers to field in Tibetan and "kor" means
rotating.So, "ongkor" is a transliteration, meaning walking round
the field.
The Ongkor Festival is observed only in farming villages, especially
in the countries in middle reaches of Yarlung Tsangpo and the ones besides
Lhasa River.It also appears in other places with different names,
however.For instance, it is called "Yaji" (meaning comfortable summer
in Tibetan) in Lhatse and Tingri.
On the day, Tibetans will always dress themselves in holiday best and
walk around their fields, some carrying colorful flags, some lifting
barley and harvest pagoda made of ear of wheat with white hada hanging
around, some beating drums and gongs, singing songs and Tibetan operas,
some holding the portrait of Chairman Mao.
After that, people will set up tents and take barley wines, drinking
cheerfully when chatting freely.Moreover, they will also hold traditional
activities and contests such as horse racing, yak racing, riding to
pick up hada, singing and dancing contest and Tibetan opera contest.
| National Holidays in Tibet |
Secular public holidays, when banks and government offices are closed,
are few and many shops remain open even on these days.The following
are official Chinese holidays:
- New Year's Day - 1 Jan
- Chinese Lunar New Year (Varies by year)
- Women's Day - 8 Mar
- Labour Day - 1 May
- Youth Day - 4 May
- Children's Day - 1 Jun
- Communist Party Day - 1 Jul
- National Army Day - 1 Aug
- National Day - 1 Oct
- Christmas -25 Dec ( without any day off, very popular among young
people)
| Tibet Festivals & Events Dates |
Based on the Tibetan Lunar Calendar:
- New Year (Losar) - Feb/Mar
- Great Prayer Festival (Monlam) - Feb/Mar
- Buddha's Birth, Death and Enlightenment (Saka Dawa) - May/Jun
- World Incense Day - Jun/Jul
- Various Horse Festivals - Jul/Sep
- Yoghurt Festival (Shoton) - Aug
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