Tibetan festivals

In Tibet, the Tibetan calendar lags approximately four to six weeks behind the solar calendar. For example the Tibetan First Month usually falls in February, the Fifth Month June or early July and the Eight Month in September.

1st Month - 
1st-7th: New Year Festival Losar - A week long drama and carnivals, horse races and archery

4th-25th:  Monlam Prayer Festival- The Great Prayer Festival, a tradition begun by Tsong Khapa. Manypilgrims gather at Jokhang in Lhasa

15th:  Lantern Festival - Commemorates Buddha's miracle at Sravasti. Fires are lit on roofs, and lamps in windows

2nd Month
28th-29th: Festival to drive out evil spirits and expel scapegoat. Lamas encircle Lhasa with trumpets

Tibetan Pilgrim

4th Month
7th: Pilgrim Festival - mportant month for pilgrims. -the birth of Buddha Sakyamuni

Saka dawa 

15th: Saka dawa - Celebrates the birth and Enlightenment of Sakyamuni and his entry toNirvana. An outdoor opera is held and captured animals released. Worshippers flock to the Jokhang in Lhasa to pray.

5th Month
14th-16th: Hanging of the Thangka - A giant thangka is hung at Tashilhunpo in Shigatse

15th: Incense Festival - On this day ghosts are said to prowl. Tibetans dress up and party to drive away the spirits.

Sho Dun Festival 

15th-24th: Sho Dun Festival - Literally, the "Yoghurt Festival." Worship of the Buddha. Picnics and operas are held in parks particularly under the trees at Norbulingka. There are often bonfires at night.

6th Month
4th: Buddha's sermon - A feast is held to commemorate Buddha's first sermon. Pilgrims climb holy mountains such as Chokbori

6th: Cham-ngyon-wa, or "Old Dance" - Celebrated at the Cho-ne Monastery, representing the souls of the departed.

7th month
Beginningm : Washing Festival - Lasts about a week. People go to the river to wash themselves and their clothes. Said to cure any sickness.

End: Ongkar Festival - Literally 'Looking around the fields'. Ensures a good harvest. Horse-racing, archery contests and opera

7th/8th Month
All: Golden Star Festival-The Golden Star festival is held to wash away passion, greed andjealousy and to abandon ego. Ritual bathing in rivers takes place and picnics are held

Yak Racing

8th Month
1st-10th: Dajyur Festival - The Dayjur is held in Gyantse and Damxung -horse racing and light hearted sports competitions and games takes places

1st-7th : Harvest Festival - The festival is held with prayers, dancing, singing and drinking

9th Month
22nd: Buddha's descent from heaven after preaching to his mother is commemorated. All monasteries are opened and pilgrims gather

10th Month
25th: Tsong Khapamemorial- Memorial festival of Tsong Khapa's death - fires are lit on the roofs of the monasteries and lamps are lit

Dress up for New Year

12th Month 
1st-7th: New Year Festival -New Year Festival in Shigatse

5th-6th: Meeting of the Eight Guardians- The Meeting of the Eight Guardians and demons where Tibetans stay indoors to avoid evil outside

Devil Dance

29th: Banishing Evil Spirits - A "Devil Dance" is held to drive out all evil from the Old Year to prepare for New Year.

Beyul of Pemako

YARLUNG TSANGPO-BRAHMAPUTRA 雅鲁藏布江 - 布拉马普特拉河

The Tsangpo-Brahmaputra is a major international river shared between Tibet/China, India and Bangladesh. On the Tibetan Plateau, the river flows west to east, across Southern Tibet, from its sources near the sacred Mt. Kailash (གངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ༑) all the way to the Great Bend, where the river turns north to take a sharp U-turn to flow south into India and then to Bangladesh. Hydrologically, this river is connected to the larger Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin. 

Until recently, the Yarlung Tsangpo was considered as an undammed river. China has officially announced plans to build five dams on the middle section of the river, including the Zangmu project currently under construction, which has caused much concern in India. The absence in these debates of the voices of Tibetans who live in the valley and are traditional users of its waters in these debates is deplorable, especially given their historical, religious and economic connections to the river. 

The historic Yumbulagang Palace 雍布拉康宫 in the Yarlung Valley 雅鲁藏布江河谷 

is a hilltop fort and ancient palace founded over 1,000 years ago.

The Yarlung Tsangpo River is intimately linked to the history of Tibetan civilization, indigenous religious beliefs and practices, and ultimately to the Tibetan identity. As the River Nile is to Egypt, Yarlung Tsangpo can be considered the cradle of Tibetan civilization. The Yarlung Valley is the home of the earliest Tibetan kings known as the Yarlung Dynasty. From its sources near the sacred Mt. Kailash, the Yarlung Tsangpo valley is dotted with pilgrimage sites and power-places such as meditation caves of past masters and beyul (་"hidden valleys") for spiritual practices. The river is also shown in paintings of the famous imagery of Tibet as a supine demoness (སྲིན་མོ་གན་རྐྱལ༑).

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To the Tibetans, the Great Bend region is known as Pema Koe, the most sacred beyul blessed by Guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava, the Indian Buddhist yogin credited with firmly establishing Buddhism in Tibet. Generations of visionary Tibetan Buddhist masters have revealed "hidden treasures" (གཏེར་མ་) and made journeys through the different layers of spiritual doors of beyul Pema Koe. Tibetans also consider the region as the home of the Goddess Dorje Phakmo (Vajra Yogini).

Similar to the Tibet map depicted as a demoness lying on her back, 
Similar to the Tibet map depicted as a demoness lying on her back, 



THE TSANGPO GORGE: THE SACRED LAND OF PEMA KOE

The Great Bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo, also known as the Tsangpo Gorge, has attracted significant international attention as the "Last Secret Place on Earth" and for having the greatest hydropower potential of any site in the world. Through the 19th century, cartographers were not certain whether the Yarlung Tsangpo emerged from the other side of the Gorge as the Brahmaputra, the Irrawaddy, or some other river. Just downstream of Lungpe (ལུང་དཔེ་), the Yarlung Tsangpo enters one of the world's deepest and largest gorges, starting from a 4,900-meter cleft between two of the highest mountains in Eastern Himalaya: 7756 meters high Namchak Barwa and 7294 meters tall Gyala Pelri. As the river drops nearly 2500 meters in altitude through the length of the bend, the gorge is considered ideal for hydropower generation. Speculation about the construction of the world's most powerful dam and a major water diversion project at this site (discussed below) has been a major cause of concern in downstream countries. 

The Great Bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo River is also known as one of the most bio-diverse regions in the world in terms of plant species. Although it is hard to imagine how botanists studied and added up the numbers of different plant species in this hard-to-travel corner, this official site boasts the existence of 3,700 plant species and emphasizes "the primordial nature of the plants" in the region. The ecological integrity of the Great Bend area is critical for the conservation of the Himalayas as one the world's richest but at greatest-risk areas for biodiversity (hotspot).

Similar to the Tibet map depicted as a demoness lying on her back, this local trekking group describes the sacred geography of the Pema Koe region as mapped onto the body of the goddess Dorje Phakmo herself: "Her head is the Kangri Kangpo [White Snow Mountain], her two breasts [are] Namche Barwa and Gyala Peri [mountains] respectively. The lower part of her body lies in Yangsang or the innermost Pemako which is the upper Siang region of Arunachal Pradesh. In the confluence of Siang (Tsangpo) and Yangsang is the sacred tri[a]ngle Kila Yangzom the vulva of Goddess Dorje Phagmo." These beliefs and pilgrimage practices have religious and cultural significance for millions of Buddhists around the world. 

The Great Bend of the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra. 雅鲁藏布江 - 布拉马普特拉河



Chinese Info about the region : “白玛归”寻找多吉帕姆的大地化身

Sacred Site in Tibet

Mount Kailash 冈仁波齐峰

Yangzhuoyongcuo lake羊卓雍错

Namtso Lake 纳木措湖

Lake Manasarovar 玛旁雍错

Yarlung Tsangpo River 雅鲁藏布江

The Yarlung Tsangpo River is intimately linked to the history of Tibetan civilization, indigenous religious beliefs and practices, and ultimately to the Tibetan identity.

The Yarlung Valley is the home of the earliest Tibetan kings known as the Yarlung Dynasty. From its sources near the sacred Mt. Kailash, the Yarlung Tsangpo valley is dotted with pilgrimage sites and power-places such as meditation caves of past masters and beyul (་"hidden valleys") for spiritual practices. 

The river is also shown in paintings of the famous imagery of Tibet as a supine demoness (སྲིན་མོ་གན་རྐྱལ༑)

Beyul of pemako

Read more on beyul of pemako

Ruins of the Guge Kingdom

The ruins of the Guge

The ruins of the Guge Kingdom are located on a 300-meter-high hill with over 300 caves and destroyed earth buildings in Zhada County of Ngari Prefecture. The great kingdom with 1,000 years history came into existence against nature in a desolate plateau 4,000 meters above sea level nowadays.

The ruins of the Guge Kingdom are located in Zhabran Village, which is 18 km west of the county town of Zhada, Ngari Prefecture, west Tibet.Descendants of the Tubo Kingdom founded the Guge Kingdom in the tenth century AD, who fled from Lhasa after the collapse of the Tupo Kingdom and developed Guge civilization, a fusion of the eastern and western culture. The great kingdom with 700 years history came into existence against nature in a desolate plateau 4,000 meters above sea level nowadays. The kingdom played an important role in the second renascence in Tibet and survived for about 700 years before disappearing mysteriously in the 17th century. What are left here are the ruins of the capital of the Guge Kingdom.

As an important part of the Tibetan civilization, the ruins were designated in 1961 in the county's first group of key cultural relics under national protection. Large-scale of archeological work began in 1985 when the Tibetan Cultural Committee organized a team to investigate the place. In the following years of the excavation, a lot of sculpture works and mural paintings were unearthed. Houses, cave dwellings, monasteries and stupas were found on the mountain where the ruins are situated. Their field work showed that there are a total of 1,416 surviving pieces of architecture, including 879 caves, 445 houses, 58 blockhouses, 28 pagodas, and four tunnels, which lead in all directions inside the architectural group.

There are 300-plus caves and crude huts at the foot of the ruins. On the hillside are temples and monks' dormitories with Buddhist sculptures and color frescoes inside.

Most of the sculptures are gold or silver Buddhist statues, among which the best one is a statue called Guge Silver Eye (Yinyan in Chinese)

In the middle of the 9th century, the Tubo оf Kingdom collapsed. The descendants of King Nangdharma established their own independent kingdoms and Chide Nyimagon became the king of Ngari, who had three sons. The Guge Kingdom was set up by his second son after he conquered Tsaparang. The main ruins of the Guge Kingdom are in Tsaparang where the dilapidated construction and the natural earth piles are perfectly integrated. More than 400 rooms and 800 caves are piled up on the slope of the hill, which is 300m high. Being the capital city of the Guge kingdom, the Tsaparang ruins are the largest complex in Tibet next to the Potala Palace, which covers an area of 720,000 sq. m. The main buildings of the Guge Kingdom consist of the red and white temples as well as mandala halls. The murals covering over a thousand square meters can be seen as its most precious remains. Among these murals there are paintings of creatures such as creature with human-headed but snake body, which is very rare in other places. 

The murals are preserved in good condition, although they are hundreds of years old. The themes of the murals include every aspects of the social life of that time. A chapel on the summit of the mountain houses a mural depicting male and female Buddhas bringing the Tantric cultivation (civilization) together, while the lower part displays purgatory with naked, enchanting Dakins flanking each side. The artistic and aesthetic value of Guge murals is deemed comparable with that of Mogao Caves (located in Gansu Province, China).

There are other caves scattered around the ruins, which have preserved some weapons, helmets and armors used by warriors in the past.

The kingdom played an important role in the second renascence in Tibet and survived for about 700 years before disappearing mysteriously in the 17th century.

Large-scale of archeological work began in 1985. In the following years of the excavation, a lot of sculpture works and mural paintings were unearthed. Houses, cave dwellings, monasteries and stupas were found on the mountain where the ruins are situated.

Most of the sculptures are gold or silver Buddhist statues, among which the best one is a statue called Guge Silver Eye. 

Guge abounded with gold and silver. Sutras written with liquid gold or silver have been excavated in Tholing Monastery and in the villages of Zhabran, Piyang and Donggar. The sutra was written on a kind of dark blue paper, with the lines written alternately in liquid gold and liquid silver.