So much in Asia depends on the calendar. In February in Beijing, more than 20 million people all set off fireworks to celebrate Chinese New Year. In Nagaland in India, tribes from all over the region meet to compete, dance, and celebrate. In Thailand, spectators look on as celebrants perform bizarre rituals at the Nine Emperor Gods Festival.
With an intimate and unique knowledge of Asian culture, Remote Lands knows the importance of experiencing culture the right way. Whether you want an up-close view of the Sing-Sing festival in the Asaro Valley of Papua New Guinea or a quiet walk through the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan, Remote Lands can give travelers the best possible experience on their celebrations throughout Asia.
The Ami harvest festival is a chance for this indigenous group to flaunt their colorful culture to thousands of visitors. Around 40 tribes in the east of Taiwan give thanks for their (hopefully) good harvests, whilst also performing enthralling songs, dances and plays.
The annual Art Gene festival at the Tbilisi Open Air Museum of Ethnography features traditional singing and dancing to celebrate Georgian artistic culture, particularly the region’s popular polyphonic singing. Other events in the past have included ballet and craft-making. Events are held around Georgia and then culminate with the annual festival in July.
Crazy for kites, Bali paints the sky during the month of July with the annual three-day Kite Festival. Biggest is best when it comes to the kite flying competitions in Indonesia. Visitors flock from all over the world to check out the event.
Held in Batumi, Georgia’s Las Vegas on the Black Sea, the Black Sea Jazz Festival is the most important jazz music event in the region and today includes a variety of musicians and styles — with recent years including Snoop Dogg, Robert Plant, and Lauryn Hill.
Established to celebrate and promote the diverse and beautiful culture of the island of Borneo, this popular ten-day festival attracts visitors from all over. There are art exhibitions, cultural dance performances, concerts, story and poetry recitals and delicious home-cooked traditional food from all facets of the community in Sibu.
This increasingly popular two-day jazz extravaganza is the leading music festival in the country and attracts aficionados from all over the world to Miri in Sarawak. Every year more visitors are coming to enjoy live music from the local and international line-up of jazz superstars and to experience the culture of the region.
The annual Cheese Festival in Georgia celebrates Caucasian cheese-making. Each region has their own flavors, from the dambal-khacho to spicy Guda matured in a bag made of sheepskin. In 2015 the festival became international and includes Armenia and Azerbaijan who share in the Caucasian tradition of cheese-making, the festival moving to different locations depending on the outcome of the events.
This is one of the most important events in the Buddhist calendar, for which pilgrims from all over Tibet try to make the journey to Drepung Monastery. This day commemorates the first sermon given by Buddha regarding the four noble truths and because Buddhists believe that their actions on this day will be multiplied many times, they meditate.
Every summer, community-based tourism (CBT) groups across Kyrgyzstan organize various events for tourists as well as locals, highlighting various national and regional attractions, customs and traditions, such as falconry and yurt assembly. For more information, contact the CBT group in the area you are visiting.
This relatively new holiday celebrates the ratification of the Armenian constitution on July 5, 1995. After the fall of the Soviet Union, a draft of the constitution was presented to the government and political parties in 1992, but, due to opposition, it wasn’t until 1995 that Armenia managed to put to referendum a new constitution.
