Tibet Festivals

Place: The whole Tibet
Date: first day of the first Tibetan lunar month
Introduction:
Tibetan New Year is the most significant festival in Tibet. Different areas have different way to celebrate this festival, and the one of Lhasa is the representative. To celebrate people will dress up and greet each other for a happy New Year with Qima and Barley wine. Meanwhile, they'll sing and dance together.

For Tibetans, the start of the New Year is a sacred time, a time to be with family and with one's faith. It is also a joyous time of feasting and celebration. However, because it is a time of transition, the ending of one yearly cycle and the beginning of a new one, it is also an uncertain and ambiguous time, a moment of great danger. Careful attention and the common exertion of all positive forces in the community are required to ensure that the passage into the New Year will turn out fortuitously.

Place: Lhasa
Date: The 15th day of the first Tibetan lunar month
Introduction:
It's the last high tide of the New Year and the celebration of Buddha's Miracle Day. Lamas and artisans make butter sculptures of figures, flowers, birds and animals and display them on the shelves at Jokhang Monastery, which are lit by lanterns as night falls.

On this day, people go to temples to burn incense to worship Buddhas. As darkness falls, they will put up many stands to display the butter lanterns they made themselves. The stands go as high as three-storey buildings, even the lower ones are two-storey high. The lanterns are either grand or small. The lights make the whole street bright as in the day. People sing and dance while enjoying the lanterns. The Butter Lantern Festival is also called Lantern Festival.

Place: Lhasa
Date: The fourth up to the eleventh day of the first Tibetan month
Introduction:
It is the grandest religious festival in Tibet. Monks of Dreprang Monastery, Sera Monastery and Gaden Monastery will assemble in Jokhang Monastery on the occasion.

It 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 is was set up.

Place: Tibet
Date: The 15th day of the fourth Tibetan lunar month
Introduction:
It's an influential religious festival in Tibet. Here Saga Dawa stands for April in Tibetan calendar. People celebrate Buddha Shakyamuni's birth, enlightenment and Parinirvana by worshipping Buddha in the inner, middle and outer parts of Lhasa. All activities last through the whole month and its climax are on 15 April. Saga Dawa is also known as Fangsheng, meaning setting animals free. During the festival people do not meat meat or slaughter.

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.

Place: Lhasa
Date: The 30th day of the sixth Tibetan lunar month
Introduction:
Shoton is the transliteration of two Tibetan words which mean 'Yoghurt Banquet'. In ancient times, folks went into mountain hermitages to do penance. On the last day of the festival, Yoghurt is served as meal followed by folk song and dances.

To celebrate the festival, artists give the performances at Norbulingka. Besides, an annual ceremony of showing the Buddha's paintings is held at Drepung Monastery. Tibetan local operas were added to festival celebrations which were held around monasteries in Lhasa.

Place: Gyantse
Date: The seventh Tibetan lunar month
Introduction: Horse Racing Festival is celebrated in Gyantse in the month of July. Horse racing and archery were first started in Gyantse in 1408.

During the festival, horse races, archery, and shooting on galloping horseback were followed by a few days of entertainment and picnicking. Ball games, track and field events, folk songs and dances, and barter trade were later added to it.

Place: Lhasa
Date: The seventh Tibetan lunar month
Introduction:
The Bathing Festival often falls on the first ten days of the seventh Tibetan month. Lasting a week, it is also known as the Bathing Week.

Tibetans have the strong belief that bathing for the consecutive seven nights will enable them to keep off cold and plague, and therefore enjoy good health and long life. Having dipped in water for some time, they gather around the bonfires that dot the world of willow trees, to dine and wine to their heart's content. Then, they play six-stringed musical instrument, sing folk songs and dance merrily.

Place: Lhasa, Gyantse and Shangnan
Date: The eighth Tibetan lunar month
Introduction:
Onkor means 'surrounding the farmland' in Tibetan language. It is an old festival in the farming area of Tibet held in each August in Tibetan calendar when the crops are waiting to be harvested. Farmer's events include horse racing, shooting, singing and dancing and so on.

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.