Festival Departure 2025

Tibetan New Year (Lhosar):
Lhosar, the Tibetan New Year, the largest and most popular non religious festival of the year. Lhosar is primarily a family oriented festival, celebrated in homes and with friends by eating special pastries and drinking plenty of Chang (Barley Beer). On New Year’s Day in Lhasa pilgrims throng the Jokhang Temple and Potala Palace to make offerings of butter in the burning lamps. The great incense burners around the Barkhor Street billow scented smoke continuously as queues of worshipers wait to add their offerings of juniper boughs. Everyone dresses in their finest clothes and many people parade around the Barkhor. Early the morning of the third day pilgrims climb the hills around Lhasa to light fires of incense bush. In town, new colored prayer flags are hung out above each home and small incense fires burn everywhere.

Monlam Chemo Festival (Great Prayer Ceremony)/Butter Lantern Festival:
The Great Prayer Festival is celebrated on the 15th of the first month every year. Monks from monasteries and local artists make various shaped butter flowers with colored butter sculpture in pyramids in front the Jokhang Temple (Nowadays this festival hold in their own monastery). In the evening, after the butter lamps are lit, their lights look just like stars dazzling in the sky.

Saga Dawa Festival:
Saga Dawa festival is the biggest religious festival after Monlam Chemo and celebrates the enlightment of Buddha and his entry into nirvana upon his death. Thousands of pilgrim crowd into the Jokhang temple and the lingkor circumambulation routes around Lhasa has a steady flow of worshipers for the entire day.

Shoton ( The Yoghurt Feast) Festival:
Drepung Monastery Giant Thangka Festival. The large Thangka is displayed for only a few hours early in the morning on a hill beside Drepung. This marks the star of Yogurt Festival, after the Thangka comes down the first opera dances are performed in the main courtyard. At the same time another huge Thangka displaying in Sera Monastery too. During this festival, Norbulinka is the scene of a weeklong picnic of eating and drinking with Tibetan opera performances in the gardens and at other venues around Lhasa city. Opera troupes from around Tibet perform the entire week.

Horse racing Festival:
Horse race and archery are generally popular in Tibet, there are many horse racing festivals in Tibet, Jyekudo, Nakchu and Litang are the greatest. Gyantse enjoys prestige of being the earliest in history of starting 1408.  Contests in early times included horse race, archery and shooting on gallop followed by a few days entertainment or picnicking. Presently ball games, track and field events, folk songs and dances, barter trade are in addition to the above.
August is the golden season on Tibet’s vast grassland. Herdsmen, on their horsebacks, in colorful dresses, carrying tents and local products, pour into their pastureland. Soon they form a city of tents. Various exciting programs are held, such as horse racing n Yak racing too.

Sigmo Chemo:
It is an religion festival of Tashilumpho monastery, during these days in that monastery will be holding full day of Mask dance performance. This kind of religion performance kept very traditional action of dance and the rhythm as well as instrument play style.

Ganden Ngamchue/Palden Lhamo Festival:
It is Tsongkhapas Nirvana day, this day in most Gelukpa tradition monasteries praying and commemorate for Tsongkapa great achievement in this day evening all over the Tibetan families burning prayer butter lamps on the roof of their house and front of windows.