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:: Ladakh Fairs and Festivals
Ladakh Fairs and Festivals
The festive season is perhaps the best time to travel to Ladakh when people
from near and far visit there to join the festival of Ladakh. Wearing colourful
traditional Ladakhi costumes and startlingly frightful masks, Lamas performs
mimes representing various aspects of religion such as the progress of the
individual soul and its purification or the triumph of good over evil. Hemis,
Lamayuru, Tak-thok, Spituk, Stok, Thiksey, Matho, Chermrey, Losar and many
other such festivals takes place in Ladakh every year attracting travelers
from every corner of the world. Max Holidays organize group and individual
tours to Ladakh during the following Ladakh festivals:-
Buddha Purnima Buddha Purnima or Buddha Jayanti, the birth anniversary of the Buddha, is the most important festival of the Buddhists and is celebrated with great enthusiasm. This festival falls on full moon day in the month of April. It was on this same day that Buddha got enlightenment and also attained Nirvana or salvation. So, the Buddhists consider the day to be more auspicious than any other day of the year. It is also believed that Yashodara, Gautam's wife, his charioteer Channa and even his horse Kantaka were born on the same day. Hemis Festival of Ladakh Dedicated to Lord Padmasambhava, Hemis festival is the most famous and biggest monastic festival of Leh Ladakh which takes place in the rectangular courtyard in front of the main door of the monastery. Hemis festival of Ladakh falls in late June or the first half of July month and is frequented by tourists and local alike. The most esoteric of festivities are the mystic MaskDances The Mask Dances of Ladakh are referred collectively as chams Performance. Chams performance is essentially a part of Tantric tradition, performed only in those monasteries which follow the Tantric vajrayana teachings and the monks perform tantric worship. Lamayuru Festival of Ladakh Yuru Kabgyat as the two day Lamayuru festival is locally known, depicts a sacred dance-drama ending in the destruction of sacrificial offerings. The masks worn by the lamas during the dances in this festival represent guardian divinities from the Dringungpa pantheon. At this time many people from the districts of Sham (Lower valley) and Stod (upper valley) assemble there in their colourful best to witness the festival. Phyang Tsedup Festival Phyang Tsedup takes place in July / August. Like other monasteries, monks wearing colorful brocade robes and Mask in the form of different god and goddesses perform mask dances. The huge thanka of Skyoba Giksten Gonbo is hung in the courtyard during the festival. Takthok Festival Around 46 Km from Leh, Takthok monastery was a meditation cave of mahasidhas "Kunga Phuntsog". Later, it started calling Takthok (rock roof) monastery. The festival of Takthok held on the 28 th and 29 th days of the 9 th month. Matho Festival of Ladakh Matho celebrates two significant festivals during the winter months; Nagrang festival of two day ( usually in February at the Tibetan new year) and Nispetsergyat of one day ( usually in March). Both these festivals are accompanied by masket dances. Thiksey Festival of Ladakh Thiksey gustor ( festival) held from 17th to 19th day of the 12th month. The thiksey festival main attraction is the trade fair held at the gompa's base at the same time. Villagers from all over Ladakh gather to eat, play cards, drink, barter trade items and generally socialize in a sprawling area below the gompa. In addition, all sorts of tea stalls, sweet sellers and refreshment stands are located in this area and on the footpath leading up to the gompa. Shey Festival of Ladakh In the month of summer two festivals are celebrated at Shey. The Metukba festival comes in July & lasts for one day and consists of prayers for the well being of all life on earth. The Shey Shublas festival comes during August, the Shey oracle, who is a Layman from the shey area, stays at the Tuba gompa ( a short distance from Shey gompa) where he engages in a two to three days prayer in order to be possessed and become an oracle. Annual Tourist Festival in Leh of Ladakh The festival held during summers in August last for one week with different events scheduled for each day, begins with a colourful procession down the main street of Leh. The procession includes musicians, archers and masked figures walking on stilts over 5 feet high. While the archers practice, musicians play drums and horns and groups of women, dressed in the traditional costumes of Ladakh and Baltistan, sit on the side lines to observe the contest. Sindhu Darshan (Visit Indus) Festival Sindhu Darshan is three-day festival held from 1st to 3rd June, in Shey Manla around 8 kms. from Leh on the bank of Indus river. For the first time it was organized in October 1997, as a symbol of unity and Communal harmony and national integration. Whilst promoting domestic tourism in Ladakh. It is also a symbolic salute to brave soldiers of India who have been fighting not only with enemies in the in the human form but also in the form of nature. During this festival artists from different parts of the country perform traditional dances and people from all religions, castes and regions participate. |
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