Sun Buddha Festival in Labrang Temple 2023

February 3, 2023, the thirteenth day of the first lunar month.

On the 13th day of the first month, it was the day when Labrang Temple held Buddha worship, and the festive atmosphere reached its climax. On this day, pilgrims came from the foot of Tanggula Mountain, Qinghai Lake, Aba Grassland, Bailong River and the depths of Inner Mongolia desert with pious admiration, and even came to Labrang Temple from the other side of the ocean in summer to witness this Buddhist event.

When the ceremonial procession of Dafatai in the temple, escorted by "Eight Rides of the God of Wealth", came to the open space in front of the Buddha exhibition, with the roof of the eaves wall as the suspension axis, the drum Buddha slowly unfolded, and a group of monks helped at the top of the eaves wall. The surrounding monks took over the following exhibition, and there were two rows of monks on the left and right. Qi Xin from all directions carefully presented a Thangka with a width of about 40 meters and a height of about 80 meters to people.

Reasons for sunbathing Buddha

Generally speaking, "sunbathing Buddha" sunbathes the giant Buddha Thangka. Thangka is a religious scroll painting, which is mounted with colored satin from Tibet and hung for worship. All precious mineral gems such as gold, silver, pearls, agate, coral, turquoise, malachite and cinnabar, and plants such as saffron, rhubarb and indigo are used as pigments to show sacredness.

Sunbathing in Buddha is the treasure of the temple and the most precious one in Thangka. The material is precious and the size is particularly amazing. The big one is more than ten feet long and more than ten feet wide. It is precisely because of their huge size that these large thangkas have no supporting halls to worship and usually have no chance to show them. Most of the time, it is collected in the Buddhist pavilion of the temple.

Thangka itself is a scroll painting used by Tibetans to hang and sacrifice. If you only collect and don't worship, you will lose the original intention of making Thangka, and drying Buddha is to worship Thangka, a special festival set up by the giant Buddha. Part of the reason is literally sunbathing Buddha. Thangka, the giant Buddha, is collected all the year round. Take it out to bask in the sun and prevent the tide.