Mount Kailash Festivals and Activities
Festivals and activities at Mount Kailash tell you what to do during the festival tour in Ngari, and they will surely enrich your Tibet tour. Most Tibetan festivals are full of religion features. In addition to annual large-scale worship rituals to Buddha and Buddhist masters, Tibetan people will also hold a series of festivities associated with religious life and agricultural production consisting of religious festivals and folk ones. Saga Dawa Festival and Korjak Monastery Buddhist Celebration are the ones you shouldn't miss if you travel to Mount Kailash during the festival times.
Festivals Held around Mount Kailash
Saga Dawa Festival (萨噶达娃节)
April of the Tibetan Calendar is the time to celebrate Sagadawa Festival in order to commemorate Sakyamuni, who is the founder of Buddhism. Pilgrims spare no effort to walk around the holy lakes and mountains like Kailash and Lake Manasarovar.
Wangguo Festival (望果节)
Wangguo Festival/Fruit-Awaiting Festival is celebrated in the middle of August of the Tibetan Calendar, people will dress up and bring with butter tea, highland barley wine and a variety of food to the fields for having a picnic. At the same time, they will sing and dance, and hold activities including horse racing, cattle racing, archery, stoning and wrestling, etc.
Tibetan New Year (藏历新年)
On Tibetan New Year's Day, people bring their offerings and highland barley wine to their own farmland to sacrifice the Harvest Goddess. Everyone in the ground sets up a long pole, hanging streamer on the top of the pole, and wheat straw bound on the lower end. People build an altar in front of the pole, and then simmer mulberry, singing and dancing, begging the Harvest Goddess for a booming harvest. There are lots of New Year entertainment. From the beginning of the second day, the men take part in horse racing and archery, the arrow is a wooden cone drilled with holes, when arrows set out from the string, people begin dancing and drinking around the campfire.
Men's Day in Korjak Village (科迦村男人节)
The Men's Day is a unique festival in Kejia Township of Burang County. It is held every year from February 11th to 15 th of the Tibetan calendar. During the festival, from 18-year-old boys to 70 to 80-year-old men, all were honored as distinguished guests. They gathered on the flat area in front of Korjak Monastery, sat on the mat, eating and drinking, enjoying the women performing folk dances. Before the Men's Day, prestigious elders in the village started to raise funds to run it, they set the amount of rice, noodles, oil, meat, firewood and wine that each person needs to provide.
Read more about Ngari Festivals and Activities
Activities at Mount Kailash
Tibet Mount Kailash Pilrimage Tours are the most popular ones among tourists traveling to Tibet. Full preparation, both mentally and physically, is required for the pilgrimage tours. Besides the Saga Dawa Festival, religion activity like Korjak Monastery Buddhist Celebration is a good chance to know more about local culture.
Mount Kailash Pilgrimage
Every year, thousands of people make a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash. Pilgrims of several religions believe that circumambulating Mount Kailash on foot is a holy ritual that will bring good fortune. The Kora is made in a clockwise direction by Hindus and Buddhists. Followers of the Jain and Bönpo religions circumambulate the mountain in a counterclockwise direction. The path around Mount Kailash is 52 kilometers long. Walking around the holy mountain—a part of its official park—has to be done on foot, pony or yak, taking some three days of trekking starting from a height of around 15,000 ft (4,600 m), passing the Tarboche (flagpole) to cross the Dolma La Pass 18,200 ft (5,500 m), and encamping for two nights en route.
Darchen Buddhist Celebration (达钦佛事活动)
Date: April 15 of the Tibetan Calendar
Location: Darchen Village, Mount Kailash
Darchen Buddhist Celebration is held in Darchen Village at the foot of the Mount Kailash. It means the beginning of the pilgrimage to holy lake and Kailash. The activity include setting up a sacrificial flag pole wrapped with prayer flags. The flag pole is set up only to half height on the first day, and it should be completed on the second day.
Korjak Monastery Buddhist Celebration (科迦寺佛事活动)
Date: June 4th of the Tibetan Calendar (July in Chinese Calendar)
Location: Burang County, Ngari
Korjak Monastery and Tholing Monastery are two ancient monasteries. Due to their influence in Ngari and neighboring Nepal's Buddhism, at this time of year, more than 1,000 monks and people come to participate in Buddhist activities. Moreover, the Tibetan Thangka collected in the monastery will be hung out for exhibition.
Tibet Festival Tours including Mount Kailash
Keep Reading
