Celebrating the Yogurt Festival
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E-mail China Today, August 31, 2017
Sunning of the Buddha
The Sunning of the Buddha, also known as the Buddha-basking Ceremony, is the most eye-catching prelude to the Shoton Festival. Every year on the last day of the sixth month of the Tibetan calendar, Buddhists display the giant Thangka of Great Buddha on the hillside of the Drepung Monastery for tourists and devout believers to worship.
The Drepung Monastery was built in 1416 by Tsong Khapa's fourth disciple Jamyang Choskyi. Tsong Khapa is the founder of the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Now, the 250,000-square-meter monastery is the biggest Buddhist temple in Tibet, with a 4,500-square-meter architectural complex of the Tsochin Assembly Hall, Buddhas of Three Periods Hall, Four Dratsangs, and Gaden Podrang Hall. All these buildings are surrounded by white exterior walls which look like large piles of rice from a distance, and thus the monastery was named "Drepung," meaning "piles of rice" in the Tibetan language.
Originating from the period of the fifth Dalai Lama, the Buddha-basking Ceremony in the Drepung Monastery usually starts before daybreak when disciples and visitors converge from all directions onto the solemn and respectful square of the Tsochin Assembly Hall, waiting patiently for the sacred ceremony.
At dawn, guided by Buddhists holding ritual instrument in hands, the giant Thangka in the monastery will be carried by scores of lamas all the way to the big platform built along the hillside to finally unfold and display. Crowds of people immediately make way for the Great Buddha, soon converging and then joining the long queue walking forward. The participation in the transportation of the Thangka with Buddha Sakyamuni's image is such an honor, that even people far away will throw different colors of Khada, a brightly colored scarf, and mascots to show their homage and blessing.
In the first ray of sunshine, as the blaring horn and scripture reciting goes on, a huge figure of Sakyamuni embroidered in color is gradually unfolded on the cliffs, approximately six or seven stories high, showcasing a solemn and peaceful countenance of the Great Buddha. Then, followers will begin to worship and present Khada, and pray for safety, happiness, and fortune.
The ceremony lasts for the whole morning and at around 2 pm, the giant Thangka will be cautiously rolled up and escorted back to the Drepung Monastery, to wait for next year's Shoton Festival.
– Gala in Norbulingka
Most activities of the Shoton Festival are celebrated in Norbulingka in the western suburb of Lhasa. In the Tibetan language, "Norbulingka" means "treasure garden." Norbulingka Park used to be the Summer Palace of Dalai Lama. At each year's Shoton Festival, people will get together with family members in Norbulingka, set up colorful tents and carpets, and bring beverages and delicacies to enjoy the blissful time. Under the straight white poplars, on the green grassland, along the river bank, Tibetan people with flamboyant costumes sitting in groups of three or five can be seen everywhere, singing, dancing, drinking, or playing chess.
Tibetan Opera shows are performed on the second day of the Shoton Festival, at which point Opera troupes will continually sing every morning from 11 am until night falls.
Besides the traditional Buddha display, the Shoton Festival is now more enjoyable with art shows, horse races, hiking conventions around the Namtso Lake, and a "Shoton Star" singer contest; in addition, business negotiations, merchandise exhibitions, tourism and entertainment are all included.
– Thangka
Thangka is a scroll painting with Tibetan Buddha images on silk, often kept unframed and rolled up when not on display, with a further silk cover on the front. Tibetan history, politics, culture, and social life can all be depicted on this scroll in a religious and ethnic style. Thangka, passed down from generation to generation, are all made from precious materials such as gold, silver, pearl, agate, coral, turquoise, malachite, and cinnabar; and are painted with herbal dyes made from saffron, Chinese rhubarb, and indigo.
The natural materials ensure that bright colors don't fade after hundreds of years. The process to make a Thangka is often complicated and adheres to a series of strict standards, including the painting prelude, canvas making, picture composition, coloring and dyeing, drawing the outline, dyeing the gold and silver colors, highlighting eyes on the countenance, and stitching brocade; and then the Thangka must be blessed by eminent monks. The whole process will take at least half a year, while some complicated ones need more than 10 years.
– Tibetan Opera
The Tibetan Opera usually has three main parts: a prelude, an episodic show, and an ending ceremony. In the prelude dance, characters perform paying homage to deities, praying, blessing, and give a brief introduction to the plot; the episodic show presents the audience with different stories in various performance forms, from singing and dancing to rhyming lines and monologue; while in the ending ceremony, as drums and cymbals play, all performers will dance and sing and at the same time, extend their propitious wishes to the audience.
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