Tibetan traditional folk festivals

Bathing Festival, known in Tibetan as "Gama Riji" (bathing), is a unique festival of Tibetan people, with a history of at least 700 to 800 years in Tibet. The Tibetan calendar was held from July 6th to12nd, lasting 7 days. Buddhism believes that the water in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has eight advantages, namely, sweet, cool, soft, light, clear and tasteless. Seven drinks don't hurt the throat, and eight drinks don't hurt the abdomen. Therefore, July is called the best time to take a bath. It was late summer and early autumn. The sun is shining in Wan Li, and the sky is clear. Whether in cities, rural areas or pastoral areas, men, women and children go to the river to celebrate the annual bathing festival. At that time, Tibetan people, with tents, butter tea, highland barley wine, Ciba and other foods, will come to Lhasa River and Yarlung Zangbo River one after another, and come to thousands of rivers and lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to compete for water and enjoy playing in the water. They set up a tent in the shade of the beach lawn, surrounded the tent and laid a card mat. Old people wash their hair and brush their bodies by the river, young people bathe and swim in the river, and children play in the water. At this time, women have no scruples about taking a bath, washing their bodies and washing the clothes of the whole family. During the break, the family sat around the tent and tasted the fragrant highland barley wine and fragrant butter tea. There were bursts of laughter and laughter from time to time in the tent. During the seven-day 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 Tibetan people, but also the most thorough and mass health activity every year.

2. Fruit Festival

Guowang Festival has a history of 1500 years, and it is a traditional festival in people in Xizang that longs for a bumper harvest. "Guo Wang" is a transliteration in Tibetan, which means field and land, and "Guo" means turning around, which means "going around the field". In the middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River and the rural areas along the Lhasa River, the "fruit watching" festival is very popular, and there are festivals in other places, but the names of the festivals are different. Lahu and Dingri are called "Ji Ya", that is, comfortable summer days; Bubala Snow Mountain is surrounded by semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral areas, known as "Bangsang", that is, auspicious grassland. It's about the same time, before the crops are yellow and ready to open the sickle. Before liberation, Tibetans celebrated the Fruit Festival before the arrival of the "bird king"-the season when geese flew south. Guowang Festival is an important cultural phenomenon of Tibetan people, and its origin, ceremony, region or gender characteristics are rich and colorful. ?

According to legend, as early as the end of the 5th century, King Bud Gong Jian of Tibet asked religious leaders for advice to ensure a bumper harvest. The leader ordered the farmers to circle around the fields, with incense burners and banners as the leaders, while our leader held sticks wrapped around Hada and the sheep's right leg as the guide. After leading the villagers with highland barley ears or wheat ears around the fields several times, they planted all kinds of ears of grain in granaries and shrines, praying for good weather and abundant crops.

The fruit festival lasts for one to three days and is held on auspicious days before the autumn harvest. On this day every year, Tibetan people wear festive costumes, some carry colorful flags, some carry harvest towers made of highland barley and wheat ears, and the harvest towers are tied with white "Hada", holding slogans, some beat gongs and drums, sing songs and sing Tibetan operas, and some carry portraits of Chairman Mao around the field for a week. After the circle, people carry tents and highland barley wine, while talking about the past and present, and some indulge in drinking. The commercial department also organizes material exchanges, supplies commodities with ethnic characteristics and daily necessities, and purchases local products. After the fruit festival, the intense autumn harvest sowing began.

3. Mountain Transfer Conference

Traditional Tibetan festivals, also known as the Wooden Buddha Festival, offer sacrifices to mountain gods. Popular in Ganzi and Aba Tibetan areas. Every year on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, Shui Ye, Kowloon bathes it, so it is also called Mufo Festival. On this day every year, people from far and near in Ganzi Tibetan areas wear national costumes and gather on Happy Valley Mountain and Zheduo River. People first go to the temple to burn incense and pray, and burn paper money. Then turn to the mountain to worship the gods and pray for their blessing. After climbing the mountain, we set up a tent for a picnic and watched Tibetan opera. Singing folk songs, dancing pot and string dances, and riders also have horse racing and archery competitions. During this period, people will also hold material exchange activities and other cultural and sports activities.

4. Flower-picking Festival, a traditional Tibetan festival in Apollo, Nanping County

It is held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month every year for two days. Legend has it that long ago, Apollo was a remote valley. People gather and hunt for a living, and make clothes out of leaves and skins. One day, a girl named Lian Zhi came from far away. She is beautiful, kind and intelligent. She taught the local people to farm, weave, sew clothes, and collect lilies to treat others. One year, on the fifth day of May, Lianzhi went up the mountain to collect flowers and was swept down the cliff by the nickel wind and died. People are very sad, so they go up the mountain to pick flowers on this day to commemorate her. Over time, the flower picking festival was formed.

5. Huanglong Temple Fair

Huanglong Temple Fair is a traditional festival of Tibetan, Qiang, Hui and Han nationalities in Aba Prefecture. The annual summer calendar was held in Huanglong Temple in Songpan County on June 15. Huanglong Temple, located in the mountains at the southern foot of Minshan Mountain in Songpan County, Aba Prefecture, is backed by Snow Leopard, 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 contains calcium, it is covered with a milky yellow natural wonder like Huanglong, inlaid with more than 3,400 colorful places, connected into a colorful one. Later generations built temples to attract believers from neighboring provinces, prefectures and counties to worship, and gradually formed folk festivals.

Every year from the tenth day of the sixth lunar month, tourists from all over the world come here by horse, car or foot, bringing cooking utensils and tents. At the rally, people will not only watch the scenery of Huanglong Temple, but also hold Tibetan opera performances and folk song duets. Young brave people will also have wrestling, archery and other activities. June 15 is the climax of the festival. Huanglong Temple and the surrounding hillside forest are lined with various local products, forming a grand material exchange meeting. The old people went into the temple to burn incense and pray for life safety. Young people are singing and dancing all night.

6. Shepherd's Day

Traditional festivals of Tibetan herdsmen in Aba Prefecture. It is held at the beginning of the next month of the lunar calendar every year, and the holiday period is generally one week. Before the festival, every household cleaned up the garbage and dumped it to the west when the sun was about to set, in order to let the flame of the sun melt all the ominous things. Then, families prepare holiday foods, such as highland barley wine and yogurt. On the first morning of the festival, father and daughter competed for auspicious water. Then, wash your face and hands with auspicious water with milk, burn cypress with your washed hands, and pray for abundant water plants and prosperous cattle and sheep. Then, the family sat around and had a big meal. Three days before the festival, the villagers danced, sang, wrestled, participated in various recreational activities and stayed in the village. Three days later, people began to go door-to-door to congratulate the happy holiday. Every night, people gather outside the village, light bonfires, sing and dance.

7. Russian Happy Festival

As a traditional Tibetan festival, it is popular in Muli County. This festival falls on the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month every year. It is said that the ancient Muli area was very rich, and eight Tibetan branches in Tibet and Yunnan migrated and lived all the way. The day of settlement is the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month, and people get together to sing and dance and have fun. In the future, commemorative activities will be held on this day every year, which will be passed down from generation to generation and become a fixed festival. On the day before the festival, families are busy preparing rich food. On the festival day, the whole family sat together and drank a toast. According to custom, cats and dogs should have a full meal. If they eat meat first, it indicates good weather and a bumper harvest in agriculture and animal husbandry in the coming year. At night. People gathered around piles of bonfires. Yes, singing folk songs and dancing.