Tibet has 20 or 30 big and small traditional festivals a year. During the festivals, friends get together. Both men and women sing songs and perform dances and vie to demonstrate their artistic abilities. These festivals have a long history, and most are connected with religion. However, these festivals tend to folk customs and pleasure as time goes on.
The first day of the Tibetan New Year always falls in February and is the most important festival for the Tibetan people. In the early 12th month of the Tibetan Calendar, the Tibetan people buy goods and materials to celebrate New Year’s Day. The rectangular droso-chema with colourful patterns and offerings is the most important. The droso-chema get prepared with stuffed with buttered barley, sapodilla and roasted wheat grains. On its cover are barley ears, cockscomb flowers and buttered flowers. On the dawn of the first day of the Tibetan new year, people in their ancient cultural dresses, holding droso-chema in their hands, visit the elders, relatives and friends and exchange Tashi Delek greetings. Then, starting from the second day, they sing and dance, invite elders and relatives to celebrate, get blessings, and go to the nearby monasteries to pray to Buddha.
The Shoton Festival (Yogurt Banquet Festival) in Lhasa get celebrated on the first day of the seventh month of the Tibetan calendar, generally in August. Traditionally it is to welcome the return of the monks from the mountain after cultivation by local people and their relatives with yoghurt and an outdoor banquet. During the occasion, Tibetan artists from different schools gather in NorbuLinka monastery at Lhasa and perform traditional opera for several days. The day is also for the sunning Buddha ceremony, and it gets held at Drepung Monastery.
Saka Dawa, which falls each 15th day of the fourth month in the Tibetan calendar, is the most sacred day for the entire Buddhist world. This is because Sakyamuni Gautama Buddha was born, enlightened, and received the Mahaparinirvana (passing away) on the day. On occasion, people dress in their splendid attire, sing, dance, chant sacred mantras, and have a picnic or gather
in monasteries. On occasion, people also make social donations, pray for peace and harmony, light butter lamps on sacred sites, release captive animals/birds for freedom and fish to the major rivers, lakes and seas. In addition, people do not eat meat for three months and refrain from killing any living things to concentrate their efforts on worshipping.
During this festival, people express their wish for a good harvest before harvesting the crops. The festival lasts for two days. First, people gather in their splendid attire holding colourful flags in their hands. Next, the people tie highland barley and wheatears into a bumper-harvest pagoda with Khatag (sacred white scarfs). Then they walk around their fields, singing songs, and beating drums and gongs before initiating a horse race. Just after the festival, the farmers begin with harvest works.
The Worshipping Festival falls on the fourth day of the sixth month of the Tibetan calendar, and it is an especially occasion for the people U region. During this festival, the people in their festive attire and offerings visit their nearby monasteries, pray to Buddha, and chant sacred mantras. This day is for a complete family outing and returns home only after sunset.
The Sorcerer’s Dance Festival falls on the 29th day of the 12th month or the last month of the Tibetan calendar and is an occasion of a grand praying to drive off the negative forces accumulated in the year. The families of each household clean their houses and put on new decorations. Before entering into the new year, people believe that all evil forces and dirty things, including one’s harmful deed, should be cleared away to have a happy life, good weather for the crops, and a problem-free new year.
The fairy maiden festival falls on the 15th day of the 10th month of the Tibetan Calendar, and it is also known as the Mother of Heaven Festival. Women claim this festival to only of their and remain active on occasion.
In each May or June, on the 18th day of the fourth month of the Tibetan calendar, the farmers and herders in Gyangze or those from Yadong, Shigatse and people in business from Lhasa gather in Gyantse and take part in horse racing, archery competitions, singing and dancing, amusements and exchanging goods and materials. (This festival is said to be originated only in 1408.)
This festival gets held on the 15th day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar. During the festival, monks from various monasteries and folk artists make colourful butter sculptures such as flowers, figures, immortals, animals and birds, hang onto the flower frames in the Jokhang Monastery, and offer butter lamps in the evening. During the festival, there are puppet performances.
The Kyangqen Horse Racing Festival in Qangtang, the most magnificent in north Tibet, is celebrated each 10th of August. August is the most beautiful or luxuriant season of grassland, and tens of thousands of herders from various parts of Tibet gather at Nagchu on their horses. They set up tents in the southern part of Nagchu Town. There are exciting horse racing, archery contests, and horsemanship performances during the festival.
Goinbo Festival in Nyingchi is celebrated on the first day of the 10th month of the Tibetan calendar or in November or December. The festival is to remember their heroic Goinbo soldiers; a legend relates to a king of Goinbo who led his soldiers to resist invaders. On occasion, the people in Goinbo offer sacrifices and keep vigil all night as their ancestors did to save the nation. It is now a festival that includes dances, horse racing and archery competitions, exchanges of goods and materials, drinking wine, and singing.
This Bathing Festival, a week-long festival, falls in the seventh month of the Tibetan calendar or in September when Venus appears. Tibetan people believe that the water becomes purer during this week to wash off dirt on their bodies and cure any diseases. So the Tibetan people in various parts have a bath, wash their clothes and play in the rivers and lakes.
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