Tibetan folk traditional festivals

1. Bathing Festival

Bathing Festival, called Karma Riji (bathing) in Tibetan, is a unique festival of the Tibetan people and has a history of at least seven or eight hundred years in Tibet. . It is held from the 6th to the 12th of July in the Tibetan calendar and lasts for 7 days. According to Buddhist teachings, Tibetan people believe that water from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has eight major advantages: one is sweet, two is cool, three is soft, four is light, five is clear, six is ??not smelly, seven drinks do not hurt the throat, and eight drinks do not hurt the abdomen. Therefore, July is known as the best time for bathing. It was late summer and early autumn, the wind was gentle and the sun was beautiful on the Wanli Plateau, and the sky was high and the clouds were clear. Whether in cities, rural areas or pastoral areas, families of all ages, men, women and children come to the riverside to celebrate the annual bathing festival. At that time, Tibetan people carrying tents and food such as butter tea, highland barley wine, and tsampa will come to the banks of the Lhasa River, the Yarlung Zangbo River, and the thousands of rivers and lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to compete in the water, play and swim in the water. They set up tents under the shade of trees on the river beach lawn, surrounded the tents and spread out mats. The elderly washed their hair and wiped their bodies by the river, the young people bathed and swam in the river, and the children played in the water and had water fights. At this time, the women also took a bath without any scruples, washing their bodies and the whole family's clothes. Clean and tidy. During the break, the family sat around the tent and tasted the mellow highland barley wine and fragrant butter tea. There were bursts of laughter and laughter from time to time in the tent. During the seven days of the Bathing Festival, people not only come to the river to bathe every day, but also clean all the bedding at home. Therefore, the Bathing Festival is not only a traditional festival loved by the Tibetan people, but also the most thorough and mass annual festival. health activities.

2. Wangguo Festival

Wangguo Festival has a history of more than 1,500 years and is a traditional festival for Tibetan people longing for a good harvest. "Wangguo" is the Tibetan transliteration, "Wangguo" in Tibetan means field, land, "Wangguo" means turning in a circle, which means "turning around the head of the field". The Wangguo Festival is very popular in the rural areas in the middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River and on both sides of the Lhasa River. It is also celebrated in other places, but the names of the festivals are different. In Lazi and Dingri areas, it is called Yaji, which means comfortable summer; Gongbu Bala Snow Mountain is surrounded by a semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral area, called "Bangsang", which is an auspicious grassland. The time is almost the same, and it is held before the crops are ripe and ready to be harvested. Before liberation, Tibetans celebrated the Wangguo Festival before the arrival of the season when the king of birds, the wild geese, flew south. The Wangguo Festival is an important cultural phenomenon of the Tibetan people, and its origins, rituals, and local or sexual characteristics are colorful. ?

According to legend, as early as the end of the 5th century AD, the Tibetan King Budgongjian sought advice from the leader of the religion in order to ensure a good harvest. The leader of the religion ordered the farmers to circle around the fields, led by those holding incense burners and flag poles, led by the leader of the religion who held up the wooden stick wrapped around the hada and the right leg of the sheep, and led the villagers holding highland barley ears or wheat ears. After the villagers circled the fields several times, they inserted various ears of grain into granaries and shrines to pray for good weather and abundant harvests.

The Wangguo Festival lasts from one to three days and is held on an auspicious day before the autumn harvest. On this day every year, the Tibetan people wear festive costumes, some carry colorful flags, some carry harvest towers made of highland barley and wheat ears, with white hada tied on the harvest towers, hold slogans, and some knock on Gongs and drums were played, songs and Tibetan operas were sung, and some carried the statue of Chairman Mao and circled the field. After the circle, people carried tents and highland barley wine, talking about ancient roads and modern times, while reveling and drinking. Some even held traditional horse racing and archery. , yak racing, horseback riding, singing and dancing, and Tibetan opera competitions. The commercial department also organizes material exchanges, supplies special ethnic commodities and daily necessities, and purchases local products. After the Fruit-Wang Festival, the intense autumn harvest sowing begins.

3. Mountain Turning Meeting

Tibetan traditional festival, also known as the Mu Buddha Festival and the Mountain God Respecting Festival. Popular in Ganzi and Aba Tibetan areas. Every year on the 8th day of April in the lunar calendar, the birthday is bathed in Kowloon leaf water, so it is also called the Buddha Mu Festival. On this day every year, people from far and near in the Garze Tibetan area, dressed in national costumes, gather on Paoma Mountain and the Zheduo River. People first go to the temple to burn incense and pray and burn paper money. Then they go around the mountain to worship the gods and pray for their blessings. After walking around the mountain, we set up a tent for a picnic and performed Tibetan opera. Sing folk songs, dance Guozhuang dance and Xianzi dance, and the riders also compete in horse racing and archery. During this period, people will also hold material exchange activities and other cultural and sports activities.

4. Flower Picking Festival is a traditional Tibetan festival in the Boyu area of ??Nanping County

It is held every year on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month and lasts for two days. Legend has it that Boyu was a remote ravine a long time ago. People lived by gathering and hunting, and used leaves and animal skins to make clothes. One day, a girl named Lianzhi came from afar. She was beautiful, kind, and clever. She taught the local people how to open up wasteland, weave and sew clothes, and she also collected lilies to treat people's illnesses. One year on the fifth day of May, Lianzhi went up the mountain to pick flowers, but was blown off a cliff by a nickel wind and fell to her death. People were very sad, so they went to the mountains to pick flowers on this day to commemorate her. Over time, the Flower Picking Festival was formed.

5. Huanglong Temple Fair

The Huanglong Temple Fair is a traditional festival for Tibetan, Qiang, Hui, Han and other ethnic groups in Aba Prefecture. It is held every year on the 15th day of the sixth lunar month at Huanglong Temple in Songpan County. Huanglong Temple is located in the mountains at the southern foot of Minshan Mountain in Songpan County, Aba Prefecture. It is backed by Xuebaoxiang, the main peak of Minshan Mountain at an altitude of more than 5,700 meters. Because the clear spring on the top of the mountain brings calcium flying down, it is covered with a milky yellow, The natural wonder like a yellow dragon flying down is inlaid with more than 3,400 large and small colored areas, which are interconnected and colorful. Later generations built temples and used temple fairs to attract worshipers from neighboring provinces, prefectures and counties, gradually forming a folk festival.

Starting from the tenth day of the sixth lunar month every year, tourists from all over the country come here on horseback, by car or on foot, bringing cooking utensils and tents. At the rally, people not only enjoyed the scenery of Huanglong Temple, but also held Tibetan opera performances and folk song duets; the young warriors also performed wrestling, archery and other activities. June 15th is the climax of the festival. Huanglong Temple and the surrounding mountainside forests are lined with various local products, forming a grand material exchange meeting. Old people go to the temple to burn incense and pray for a safe life. Young people sang and danced all night long.

6. Herdsmen’s Day

A traditional festival for Tibetan herdsmen in Aba Prefecture. It is held at the beginning of the second month of the lunar calendar every year, and the festival usually lasts for one week. Before the festival, every household cleans the house and dumps the garbage to the west when the sun is about to go down, hoping that the flames of the sun will burn all ominous objects. Then, each family prepares festival foods such as highland barley wine and yogurt. On the morning of the first day of the festival, fathers and daughters from each family compete to carry auspicious water. Then, wash your face and hands with auspicious water mixed with milk, burn cedar incense with your clean hands, and pray for abundant water and grass, and prosperity for cattle and sheep. Then, the whole family sat around and feasted together. Three days before the festival, all villages dance, sing, compete in wrestling and carry out various entertainment activities without leaving the village. Three days later, people began to go from village to house to wish each other a happy holiday. Every night, people gather outside the village, light bonfires, sing and dance.

7. Erxi Festival

It is a traditional Tibetan festival popular in Muli County. The festival falls on the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month every year. Legend has it that in ancient times, the Muli area was very prosperous, and eight Tibetan branches from Tibet and Yunnan moved thousands of miles to live there. The day they settled was the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, and people gathered together to sing, dance, and have fun. From then on, commemorative activities will be held on this day every year, and it will be passed down from generation to generation and become a fixed festival. The day before the festival, every family is busy preparing sumptuous food. On the festival day, the whole family sits together, toasts and drinks. According to custom, cats and dogs are given a full meal. If they eat meat first and then eat, it means good weather and good harvest in agriculture and animal husbandry in the coming year. night. People gathered around bonfires. Sing folk songs and dance in antiphonal style.