Sa'gya County Festivals and Activities
To offer visitors a more than colorful trip in Sagya County, we list some festivals and activities in Sagya County.
The Summer and Winter Vajra Dharma Assembly（（夏季，冬季金刚神舞法会）
Each year, Sakya Monastery（萨迦寺） will hold several religious ceremonies and activities, among which the summer and winter Vajra dharma assembly（金刚神舞法会） can be seen as the most unique and grandest. The winter dharma assembly（冬季神舞法会） will begin on November 19 in Tibetan calendar. During the dharma assembly, there are some divine dance performances. The dancers wearing different mask of the dharma gods（护法神） and various animals will show the content when the Tibetan Buddhism tantra（藏传佛教密宗） defeated the monsters vividly with the simple plot. Every year, thousands of people from far and near will come to the Buddhist monastery to pay religious homage to Sakya Monastery and pray that the divine dance can bring happiness and auspiciousness to the world when the two dharma assemblies are held.
Wangguo Festival（望果节）
Wangguo Festival is a Tibetan festival of the peasants to celebrate the good harvests, usually lasting from three days to five days. It is popular in Lhasa, Shigatse area as well as Shannan prefecture. In Tibetan, "Wang" means farmland and "Guo" means to circle around. So Wangguo literally means circling around on the farmland. Wangguo Festival is a most popular festival in the rural areas of Tibet, usually observed in the 7th or 8th month of Tibetan lunar calendar. After the Wanguo Festival, local peasants begin to harvest and then sow busily.
During Wangguo Festival, people always come to the farmland, holding colorful flags and ears of barley or ears of wheat. Peasants dressed in new clothes, pile the ears of barleys and ears of wheat up into a "harvest tower" and circling around the farmland, raising their banners, beating drums and gongs and singing songs. Then activities such as horse-racing, archery, Tibetan opera performances, singing and dancing are carried out, following with a luxurious picnic.
