Live Your Best Lives
Folk customs are cultural symbols created and popularized by the people, while folk festivals are national symbols originating from and passed down through faith. Some inheritors live deep in the mountains, while others live in villages. Without exception, these destinations offer unique scenery, rich ethnic customs, and local residents have preserved traditional culture remarkably well.
Together we wandered around the Potala Palace Square, strolled through the Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village, walked through Labrang Monastery, Jokhang Temple, Zhaoxing Dong Village and other cultural holy places, feeling the tranquility and peace of these destinations themselves, and experiencing the richest and most authentic ethnic culture.
Traditional New Year atmosphere in Gannan Tibetan area
The Maulam Festival is a "prayer festival" and, like the Aba Morang Festival, is a grand religious ceremony held in the Gannan Tibetan area to celebrate the New Year. There are Buddha-drying festivals, treasure-showing festivals, religious dances, butter flower exhibitions, and one religious ceremony after another. Tibetan opera costumes, masks, drums, and other things that are not usually seen are also displayed during the festival.
Labrang Monastery in Xiahe County, Gannan, is one of the important venues for the Mawlam Dharma Assembly. From the eighth to the sixteenth day of the first lunar month after the Spring Festival, the uninterrupted folk activities fill the lives of believers.
Longli Ancient Town celebrates Lantern Festival
The Hualian Festival, officially known as the Painted Dragon Carnival, has been passed down for centuries, dating back to the Ming Dynasty. As its name suggests, on the day of the Hualian Festival, specialized dragon bearers parade and dance with the dragon, each painted with a colorful mask. The mask painting techniques and performances are inspired by the Han opera "Lan Jizi Meets His Big Brother," and have evolved and innovated over time, representing the Han cultural traditions firmly held by the people of Longli.
In addition to dragon dancing, the people also spontaneously developed special activities such as singing Chinese opera, telling stories, and guessing lantern riddles during the parade. During the period, the streets were crowded with people, and walking in the crowd felt like one had transformed into a local resident.
The Last Naked Orgy
In Hongwan Village, located in Mile County, Yunnan Province, nearly 1,200 local Yi and Axi people will show us the ancient primitive fire worship every March, with scenes such as bonfire carnivals, jumping over fire piles, and shooting fire bows.
The young and middle-aged men in the village would wrap their lower bodies with homemade "skirts" made of palm leaves, linen, etc., and use wild grass and fruits to make primitive decorations on their heads. Everyone gathered in the village to dance, jump and shout wildly. Some people even tried to cover their lower bodies with leaves, but they didn't care about exposing their whole bodies. The whole scene was joyful and warm, and people exuded primitive passion.
Traditional festivals of the Tibetan people
The 2021 Tibetan New Year falls on February 12th of the lunar calendar, coincidentally the same day as the Lunar New Year. In early December, local residents purchase New Year's goods, preparing highland barley wine, fried dough sticks, and other traditional dishes. On the last day of the old year, every household cleans the kitchen and offers sacrifices to the Kitchen God, similar to traditional Chinese New Year celebrations. Starting on the first day of the new year, Tibetans exchange greetings, burn incense in the mountains, and replace prayer flags. These various recreational activities continue for three to five days, before gradually transitioning to Tibetan Buddhist rituals.
In winter, the streets and alleys of Tibet are less noisy and more filled with the warm winter sunshine that cannot be felt in other regions. Taking advantage of the off-season, we wandered together in Barkhor Street and Potala Palace Square, feeling the tranquility and peace of Lhasa itself, and experiencing the richest and most authentic Tibetan culture.
Dai New Year with a Thousand-Year History
The annual Water-Splashing Festival is the most important festival of the Dai people. It is held from April 13th to 15th in the Gregorian calendar. Similar to our New Year's Eve, people regard the last day of the Water-Splashing Festival as the most beautiful and auspicious day.
There are various celebrations during the Water Splashing Festival, including dragon boat racing, bathing Buddha, fireworks shows, etc., but the only thing that remains unchanged is that on this day, Dai men, women, young and old will wear festive costumes and splash water on each other. Everyone carries clean water and picks up flowers and leaves to dip them in water and splash each other. This symbolizes good luck, happiness and health, and foreign tourists can also naturally participate in it.
The oldest Eastern Valentine's Day
This traditional festival, held in the Miao region of Guizhou, showcases Miao song, dance, costume, and cultural heritage. During Sisters' Day, young men and women sing duets of love songs or interrogate each other in ancient songs. Afterward, they exchange gifts, which, if voluntary, are likely engagement tokens. Other activities include bullfighting, drumming, and horse racing, all of which reflect the romantic lives of young men and women. Consequently, Sisters' Day is known as the "oldest Valentine's Day in the East."
On the Sisters' Day, Miao girls dressed up in their best clothes and walked on the streets. Some of them wore silver jewelry weighing several kilograms, which shows how much importance everyone attaches to this festival.
Siguniang Mountain God Priest
This day is a grand event for Tibetan compatriots in Siguniang Mountain in western Sichuan to worship Siguniang Mountain. Legend has it that the day when the girls turned into mountains happened to be the fourth day of the fifth lunar month. On that day, believers will dress in their best clothes and come to the altar with ghee, barley wine, glutinous rice cakes and other foods to worship, and present Hada and prayer flags to Siguniang Mountain. After the worship, they will perform singing, dancing, horse racing, wrestling and other performances and competitions until they have fun.
Dong ethnic group rain-praying ceremony
It means "worshiping the Thunder Goddess". In order to pray to the Thunder Goddess for rain and maintain the harvest, the local Dong people hold a sacrificial ceremony on the 15th day of the sixth lunar month every year. They first slaughter black pigs, burn incense and paper, and after completing a series of procedures, everyone shouts loudly to the sky under the guidance of the priest, so it is called the "Sky Shouting Festival".
The increasingly grand scale of this festival each year has made this niche ethnic festival known to the public, and tourists from all over the world come here to watch the priests' grand ceremony.
Rein in your horse and gallop across Namtso
Dangxiong County is located in the north of Lhasa. Its most famous attraction is Namtso Lake, one of the three sacred lakes, and the Nyainqentanglha Mountains by the lake. The horse racing festival is held in such a beautiful place.
Although it is called a horse racing festival, it is rich in content and form. In addition to the large-scale opening ceremony, there are horse racing events such as the 10-kilometer horse race, the Namtso Lake Race, the horse sprint, and equestrian performances; yak racing, Tibetan weightlifting, men and women tug-of-war, Yajia and other traditional Tibetan sports; ethnic costume shows, Guozhuang dance, four seasons pastoral songs, mountain song duets and other cultural performances.
Tibetan Opera and Buddha Yogurt Banquet
The Shoton Festival in Lhasa is one of the grandest, largest, and most eventful of all Tibetan festivals, and is a national intangible cultural heritage. In Tibetan, "snow" means yogurt, and "ton" means "banquet." According to Tibetan precepts, Gelugpa monks are forbidden from leaving the mountains during the growing season of April to June. Lamas can only leave the monastery at the end of June, when the ban is lifted. During that time, locals would brew yogurt to reward the monks and hold picnics and banquets for them. This is the origin of the Shoton Festival, also known as the Yogurt Festival.
During the Shoton Festival, there are also grand Tibetan operas and Buddha-drying ceremonies, which are usually held in the Norbulingka in Lhasa. Surrounded by colorful prayer flags, it is the Dalai Lama's summer garden. On that day, all residents are immersed in singing and dancing, as if this is the most energetic day for the people of Lhasa.
Dong ethnic art display stand
Held on November 28th every year, the Xiaohuang Dong Song Festival, known as the "Hometown of Dong Songs", where the Dong ethnic group's big song is listed as "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity", has also attracted worldwide attention in recent years. There is no commercial atmosphere here, making it the first choice for tired souls to rest.
Miao people dress up to welcome the New Year
The Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village still retains the "Tenth month as the beginning of the year" calendar. Every year in the tenth month of the lunar calendar, the Leishan Miao Village begins to bid farewell to the old and usher in the new. The duration of the local Miao New Year varies, but can last up to about a month.
The Miao New Year is not only long but also rich in folk customs. It's the time for the Miao people to celebrate the harvest, with ancestor worship, playing the reed pipe, and walking through the village to mark the end of the year all essential activities. On this day, all the men, women, and children in the village, as well as relatives and friends from surrounding villages, don their lavish Miao attire and wear large silver horns, rarely worn on ordinary days. Over a thousand gleaming silver horns and glittering silver ornaments create the unique "sea of silver" of the Xijiang Miao New Year.
The Dong people offer sacrifices to their ancestors at the end of the year
As the name suggests, this festival, similar to the Miao New Year, is a Dong festival for family reunions and harvest celebrations. The Dong have long held the concept of the beginning and end of the seasons, believing that the end of the year is in autumn, when crops are plentiful, livestock are thriving, and all farming activities are completed. Consequently, in some areas, the eleventh lunar month marks the beginning of the new year, while in others, it marks the end of the old year.
The most important ceremony of the Dong New Year is "Dou Sha" (singing songs to worship ancestors). In addition to its purpose of worshiping ancestors, it is also a way for the elders to pass on the nation's excellent traditional culture.
Light the butter lamps that burn day and night
Every year on the 25th day of the tenth month of the Tibetan calendar, when night falls, every household lights butter lamps to commemorate the death of Tsongkhapa, the Buddhist reformer and founder of the Gelug school, and to praise the Dharma for illuminating all beings like light and driving away darkness.
On this day, all temples and pastoralists belonging to this sect, both large and small, and villagers in every village and village light butter lamps on altars inside and outside the temples, and in their own scripture halls. That evening, the Jokhang Temple gates were practically packed, and Barkhor Street was also filled with people. Monks lit butter lamps along the roadsides, around the pagodas, on the roofs of temples, and on any steps suitable for lighting. They also offered a bowl of pure water in the temple hall. The interplay of the butter lamps and the water created a continuous, luminous glow, resembling stars falling from the sky, illuminating the night sky. At this moment, believers chorused scriptures in commemoration of Lama Tsongkhapa, creating a solemn and dignified scene.
With the changes of the times, some Chinese folk customs are dying out, especially in the sparsely populated western region, where there are many ethnic minorities we have never come into contact with. They have neither faith nor culture, and naturally have developed many folk activities unique to the local people.
If you go to these places early, you can get a glimpse of those festivals that are gradually becoming less well-known. Witnessing and spreading them are the best ways for tourists to protect national culture. While these festivals are still being held year after year, don’t you want to go to the destination to find out?
