47) The Tashilunpo Festival in Zhigatse

Asia » China » Tibet » Zhigatse
June 22nd 2005

Published: July 17th 2005

There was a famous Tibetan festival going at the time we were in Lhasa, and we of course could not miss this opportunity. Since it was called Tashilunpo Thangka Festival and Zhigatse, the town where the Tashilunpo Monastery is situated, is not extremely far from Lhasa, we decided to check out of our hotel and spend some time there. This festival is explained as follows: the huge appliqué thangkas... Read Full Entry

Photos are below

Photos: 43, Displayed: 21

Lady offering sweet smelling herbs

The air was filled with smoke and wonderful smells

A different kind of pilgrims

Two fighting rams beside prayer flags

The lady and the prayer flags

A huge amount of multicoloured prayer flags was hung in the wind. They permit the natural power of the wind to distribute the blessings of their inscribed prayers

Prostration, part one

A pilgrim is about to prostrate herself right on the circuit

Prostration, part two

Now she succeeded and is going to repeat this procedure a couple of metres ahead, along the whole 3-km circuit

Side view of the Goku Trampa

The only purpose of this nine-storey building is to serve as a tanghka wall

View of the monastery from the Goku Trampa

During the Tashilunpo Thangka Festival, the tanghka is additionally decorated with a flag in rainbow colours

Tashilunpo Monastery and rainbow flag

The whole complex including a small white stupa was visible from this point

Golden roofs of the Tashilunpo Monastery

The circuit was built into very rugged and steep terrain

Sacred images on rocks

Many rocks on the way were painted with different sacred images or inscriptions

Small stove and yak skull

Engraved yak skull as well as engraved stone slabs were placed beside a stove where herbs were burned

Watch your step!

It was not so easy to tread upon the steep terrain with the long Tibetan skirts

Elaborate headdress

At such an altitude, it is important to protect one's head against the burning sun

Nicely decorated prayer wheels

Some of the prayer wheels along the circuit were painted in red, probably having a special significance

Prayer wheels at all levels

The descent was so steep that the circuit was laid out in serpentines

Thangka, part one

The last moment when the beautiful 40-m applique depicting the Buddhas of the Three Eras could be seen this year

Thangka, part two

At a given moment, the Thangka was covered by a cloth in rainbow colours

Thangka, part three (the end)

In the end, both cloth and Thangka were lowered and the crowds quickly dispersed, as the festival was over

Mountain pass on our way back

Mountain passes are sacred to Tibetans and so they adorn it generously with prayer flags

Yak and splendid mountains

The landscape in the front is rather dull, but those mountains are breath-taking

Group of yaks

Finally Stephan managed to take a group picture without the yaks running away

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47) The Tashilunpo Festival in Zhigatse

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