HomePage| What You Need| Get There| Private Tour| Group Tour| About Us | Contact Us

Home Page / About Tibet / Tibetan Festivals

Tibet travel Preparation

• Tibet Travel Permit
• Best Time to visit Tibet
• How to get there
• Tibet highlights & Attractions
• Goldend Tibet Tours
• Maps of Tibet
• Road conditions
• Vehicles we provided
• Hotels in Tibet
• Restaurants & Meals
• Equipment for Tibet Tour
• Know more Tibet
• About Us
• Contact Us

During your Tibet tour

• Avoid the High Altitude Sickness
• Useful Tibetan Words
• Tibetan taboos
• Tibetan Culture
• Festivals in Tibet
• Advice for taking pictures
• Souvenirs & local products
• Money & credit card

After your Tibet vacation

• Tips for guide and driver
• Share feelings on your Tibet tour
• Feedback to us

Just enjoy the Festivals as follows if your schedule meets

1. Tibetan New Year

Tibetan New year is the most significant festival in Tibet. Different areas have different ways to celebrate it, let's see how Lhasa people do.

Before the Tibetan New Year, each household makes "Qiema" ( a wooden measure for grain), expressing the wish of good harvest and auspiciousness in the coming year. They will also make"Kasai" ( Fried twisted dough sticks) in various forms, which looks golden and tastes crispy, and "luoguo" ( a kind of food made of butter in the shape of sheephead), signifying thriving domestic animals and abundant lif. In addition, they offer dried or fresh fruits, butter and brick tea to Buddhas.

on December 28-29 according to Tibetan calendar, all the families clean their houses and draw "eight auspicious paintings" on the cnenter of the kitchen wall. Before the dinner of December 29, they will spray lime in front of their houses to form designs of auspiciousness. On New Year's Eve, all family members will get together to have a big dinner. They will eat "gutu", made of beef and mutton, turnip and flour lump. What is interesting is that some stones, coins, salt, pepper, charcoal and wool are wrapped in the flour lump. When people eat, they have to be very careful to see what is is their next mouthful of food. The laughters fill the room at that time. After the dinner, they hold a ceremony to drive away ghosts.

On the first day of the New Year, the Tibetans get up early. Some even stay up through the whole night. But they could not go out so early. They first programme for them will be "srcambling for water." According to the customs, the one who gets the first barrel of water at day-break is the luckiest one of the year. Only when the morning star rises and some one shouts "lajieluo" (god wins), can Tibetans rush out. Another important activity in the morning i sto go to the Jokhang Monastery to offer sacrifices to Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism. On this day, people must wear the most beautiful clothes and the most precious jewel.

People don't visit each other on the first day of the year. Starting from the next day, they begin visiting relatives and friends, which will last three to five days. On the 3rd day of the 1st Tibetan month, they offer sacrifices to the "God of Roof". All of them climb to the roof of their house and hang the new sutra streamer. Then they burn cypress branches and throw zamba into the air. Lhasa people go in groups to the Baoping ( Treasured Bottle) Mountain in the east and Chakpori ( King of Medicine) Mountain in the west to stick in scripture pole and hand sutra streamer to worship the gods of mountain and water. From the 4th day on, Tibetans start their largest religious festival-Grand Summons Ceremoney, which will end on the 15th day of the 1st Tibetan month. On the 5th day, farmers in Lhasa suburbs hold grand ceremonies to start ploughing.

according to tradition, the celebration activites on the Tibetan New Year will last 15 days.

2. Butter Lamp Festival

October 25 of Tibetan calendar sees the last high tide of celebration before the Tibetan New Year. On this day, people go to temples to burn incense to worshp Buddhas, As darness falls, they will put up many stands to display the butter lamps they made themselves. The lamps are in forms of gods, figures, flowers adn trees, birds and beasts, and can be burnt. The stands go as high as three storey buildings, even the lower ones are two-storey high. The lamps are either grand or small. The lights make the whole street bright as in the day. People sing and dance while enjoying the lamps. The Butter Lamp festival is also called Lantern Festival or Butter Lantern Festival.

3.Saga Dawa Festival

Saga Dawa Festival is an infulential festival in Tibet. It is hold in April in Tibetan Calendar. Buddhism believes that Sakyamuni was born, became Buddha and died in April, so the Saga DAwa Festival mainly focuses on worshipping Buddha in the inner, middle and outer parts of Lhasa. All the activites last through the whole month. The grandest one is on the 15th day when the buddhist followers while walking on the 8,000-metre-long outer ring of Lhasa, forming a grand troop, Chinese photinia or Zamba into the mulberry stoves or fires while passing by. At intersections of roads, they will put off their hats to bow towards the direction of the Potala Palace. In the afternoon, they all get together at Zongjolukang ( Dragon King's Pool) at the back of the red hill, where they boat, sing, dance and entertain themselves.

4. Shoton Festival

The Shoton Festival ( also called Yoghourt Festival) is held in every August in Tibetan Calendar. "Shoton" in Tibetan means yoghourt. As Tibetan operas are performed and Buddha paintings are exhibited at this time, it is also called "Tibetan Opera Festival" or "Buddha Exhibition Festival". The traditional way of starting the shoton Festival is to show Budha paintings. The main contents include Tibetan operas and gala parties, as well as wonderful yak racing and horsemanship display. The shoton Festival starts on the 30th day of the 6th month according to the Tibetan calendar( usuall, later half of August) and last five days.

The Gelupa Sect regulates that between April and June according to the Tibetan calender, lamas can only practice Buddhism in monasteries to avoid treading and killing tiny lives. The ban will be lifted at the end of June. At that time, all lamas go out fo monasteries and the laymen will offer them yoghourt and perform Tibetan operas for them. AFter 1642, the Gandain Phodrang (Paradise Palace) of the Drepung monastery became the political, religious and cultural center of Tibet. Tens of thousands of people ruched there each June 30th to give yoghourt to lamas and ask for blessings. The Tibetan Opera troupes and wild yak dancing troupes alll came to perform. In this way, the Shoton Festival was formed.

The prelude of the Shoton Festival is the Buddha exhibition in Drepung monastery, which is held at the foot of the Gebeiwoze Mountain. The tranquil valley becomes excited. With the sound of sutra bugle reverberating through the valley, about 100 lamas will carry the large-scale tangka portraying Qamba Buddha ( or Maitreya, means Future) out of the Coqen Hall of the Drepung monastery and step toward the west of the monastery where a special platform is set up for the Buddha picture exhibition. At this moment, t he mulberry smoke arises from all directions, bugles reound and scripture reciting goes on. The large tangka then will be slowly opened up. People rush up to offer white hada. Countless hada fly in front of the Buddha picture, forming a great scene. In no more than two hours, the tangka will be rolled up again and carried back. People will not see it until the next year. Then people go to the courtyard of Gandain Phodrang to watch Tibetan opera. In the afternoon, the activites center moves to Norbulingka. In the following week, the major activity is to watch the Tibetan Opera. During the Shoton Festival, the Tibetans bring along the old and the young and call on relatives and friends to Lingka gardens. The Norbulingka and other parks of Lhasa are dotted with colourful tents.

Nowadays, the Shoton Festival has become a comprehensive celebration activity with the most influences in Tibet. It is also a grand meeting for commodity exchanges.

5. Bathing Festival

The Bathing Festival usually falls on the first ten days of July according to Tibetan calendar. Lasting a week, it is also known as the Bathing Week. In Tibetan it is called "Gamariji", meaning Qishan star, or Venus. As the star rises to the sky, the mass bathing starts. As the star sets, the bathing ends. Legend goes that bathing at this period is beneficial to health. According to Tibetan Buddhism, the water in Tibet at this time has eight advantages: sweet, cool, soft, light, clear, clean, unharmful to throat, nor to belly. Judged fromt he natural environment and climate of Tibet, the river water has a relatively high temperature and is suitable for bathing. During the seven days, tens of thousands of Tibetan men and women go to river or lake to have baths. The tents, big or small, dot the beach and Lingka into a colourful world.

6. Ongkor Festival

It is called Bumper Harvest Festival, is an old festival in farming areas of Tibet. "Ongkor" in Tibetan means "surrounding the farmland". The festival is held in each August according to Tibetan calendar when all crops are witing for harvest. Major activities incude horse racing, shooting, singing and dancing, Tibetan Opera, stone holding and wrestling. The "Ongkor" not only shows people's wish for a good harvest, but also a good time for them to rest. Since crops ripen in different times, the festival is held accordingly.

The Ongkor Festival originated in the valley at the middle and lower reaches of the yarlung Zangbo River. The initial form is offering sacrifices to gods by natural villages to pray for a good harvest.

Zetang in Shannan Region holds the Ongkor Festival in mid-summer. Each family sends out a representative, mostly woman, to form a 100-member team. They are dressed in grand Tibetan robes, wear their gold and silver jewels, carry dou( a measure for grain) and scripture book showing a good harvest on their back and hold colourful arrows, Under the leadership of a revered man and accompanied by the sounds of ritual trumpets and drums, they move round the farmland coutside the village, shouting" Yangguxiu! Yangguxiu!" (means "Come back, the sould of the earth!" The old villagers will burn mulberries on teh way the Ongkor team must pass to worship gods.

Continue Reading: find the tours you like-->