Festivals

This important Buddhist festival has been established for 500 years and is hugely popular with pilgrims from all over Tibet. For three days, the Tashilhunpo monastery opens its grounds and displays a different Buddha each day. Finally, a giant painted mural is unveiled and there is a procession around the monastery compound.

Buddhists flock to the monastery in Samye, the oldest in the country for this festival. People camp out around the compound, and there’s a great picnic with singing, dancing and chanting as they await the monks dressed in elaborate costumes who perform stories and legends. Later, devotees climb nearby mountains to burn incense and hang flags.

Pilgrims and visitors from all over come to Lhasa for this important Buddhist festival celebrating Buddha’s enlightenment. The people make the nearly five-mile procession around the outskirts of the town, reciting scripture and bowing towards the Palace. In the afternoon, there’s singing, dancing and entertainment.