Festivals of Ladakh
In Ladakh, cultural traditions and ancestral customs are kept alive and vibrant through various festivals and celebrations, both religious and secular. Here, every occasion - marriage, birth, farming, and harvesting, even the flowering of plants is celebrated with great fanfare, marked with feasting, dancing, and singing of folk songs that form part of its rich culture. In summer, most villages hold archery festivals and thanksgiving events, while winter is the period in which most of the religious festivals and social and cultural events are held.
The festivals held in the monasteries are the ones with which Ladakh is famously associated. Almost all the major Buddhist monasteries hold annual festivals, mostly in winter. These take the form of dance-dramas performed by Lamas, attired in colorful robes and wearing fearsome masks. The most famous festival is that of Hemis, which is held in early summer and is dedicated to Padmasambhava, the founder of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. Every 12th year, a huge Thangka of the saint is ritually exhibited during this festival. Other monasteries with summer festivals are Lamayuru, Phyang, Takthok, and Karsha in Zanskar. The monasteries of Spituk, Stok, Thiksey, Chemrey, and Matho have their festivals in winter between November and March. Likir and Deskit (Nubra) hold their annual festivals coinciding with Leh Dosmochhe, which is held in late February and is one of two New Year festivals, the other being Losar, which falls around the time of the winter solstice.
Monastic Festivals
The monastic festivals are annual events of the major monasteries that the local people eagerly look forward to attending, both for attaining religious merit and social entertainment. These are generally held to commemorate the establishment of a particular monastery, the birth anniversary of its patron saint, or some significant events in the history and evolution of Tibetan Buddhism. People turn out in the thousands to attend these festivals in their colorful best, making every event a carnival of colors.
The core event of the monastic festival is a highly choreographed ritual dance-drama known as 'Chhams', which is directed by the 'Chham-spon', the mystic dance master of the monastery. The dances are performed not only to dramatise the esoteric philosophy of the event for the benefit of the lay devotees, but also by way of ritual offerings to the tutelary deities of the monastery and the guardians of the faith. A select group of resident lamas of the monastery, dressed in brightly patterned brocade robes, perform these dances in the monastery's courtyard. They also wear masks representing various divinities, which are mostly found in the form of statues in the "Gon Khang", the room dedicated to the guardian divinities. Some dances also feature masks representing famous characters from historical episodes or Tibetan fables.
The more fearsome ones represent powerful divinities in their various manifestations, mostly representing the Dharmapalas or protectors of the faith. The dancers, holding ritual instruments in their hands, step around the central flagpole in the monastic courtyard in solemn dance and mime, in tune with the music of the monastic orchestra. The ritual instruments and the hand gestures or mudras of the dancers symbolize different aspects of the dance-drama.
In between the more somber sequences, relief is provided by a group of comic performers who jump into the scene in the guise of skeletons and other characters, performing comic and acrobatic feats. These also wear masks representing various divinities and religious or historical characters.
As the 'Chhams' approaches its end on the second and last day of the festival, the climactic scene is enacted, in which the votive offering, a grotesque human figure made from dough, is ritually cut into pieces and scattered in the four cardinal directions. This figure symbolizes the enemy of Buddhism and the embodiment of the three cardinal evils in the human soul, viz. ignorance, jealousy, and hatred. Accordingly, its destruction represents the killing of the enemy of Buddhism and the purification of the human soul from the three evils. This ritual is known as 'Dao Tulva'. It has many interpretations: Cleansing of the soul from evils, dissolution of the human body after death into its elements, or a re-enactment of the assassination of the Tibetan apostate King Lang-dar-ma by a Buddhist monk in 842 AD. In fact, the long-sleeved dress and the huge hat worn by the leader of the Black-Hat dancer, who executes this ritual in most festivals, represents the dress used by Lang-darma's assassin to conceal his identity.
The 'Rimpoche' or head lama incarnate of the monastery conducts the rites and ceremonies of the festival. He sits on a high throne placed in the center of the long veranda that runs along one side of the rectangular courtyard facing the huge, elevated gates of the monastery's main prayer hall or Du-khang. This room serves as the green room for the artists during the festival.
The lamas of the monastery and the monk musicians, in their full ceremonial attire, sit on carpet-covered cushions on either side of the throne in the veranda, according to their hierarchy.
The Rimpoche leads the lamas in the recitation of the mantras associated with the 'Chhams', thus creating the appropriate ambiance for the dancers to enact the role of the deities whose guise they adopt. For the lay devotees, however, seeing the masked dancers serves to familiarize themselves with the kind of deities they are to encounter during the 49-day- 'Bardo' or transition period between death and rebirth in one of the six forms of existence, depending upon one's karmic existence.
The monastic festivals also provide the local people an opportunity for socializing, trading and entertainment. On this occasion, makeshift markets spring up overnight near the monastery, to which people throng. During the summer festivals, the visiting people organize picnics, overnight excursions, and all-night singing and dancing parties.
For the more devoted villagers, however, the event is essentially a pilgrimage to the monastery and its various temples, for it is during this period only that they can see all the images and figures, which are otherwise kept veiled.
In Ladakh, cultural traditions and ancestral customs are kept alive and vibrant through various festivals and celebrations, both religious and secular. Here, every occasion - marriage, birth, farming, and harvesting, even the flowering of plants is celebrated with great fanfare, marked with feasting, dancing, and singing of folk songs that form part of its rich culture. In summer, most villages hold archery festivals and thanksgiving events, while winter is the period in which most of the religious festivals and social and cultural events are held.
The festivals held in the monasteries are the ones with which Ladakh is famously associated. Almost all the major Buddhist monasteries hold annual festivals, mostly in winter. These take the form of dance-dramas performed by Lamas, attired in colorful robes and wearing fearsome masks. The most famous festival is that of Hemis, which is held in early summer and is dedicated to Padmasambhava, the founder of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. Every 12th year, a huge Thangka of the saint is ritually exhibited during this festival. Other monasteries with summer festivals are Lamayuru, Phyang, Takthok, and Karsha in Zanskar. The monasteries of Spituk, Stok, Thiksey, Chemrey, and Matho have their festivals in winter between November and March. Likir and Deskit (Nubra) hold their annual festivals coinciding with Leh Dosmochhe, which is held in late February and is one of two New Year festivals, the other being Losar, which falls around the time of the winter solstice.
Monastic Festivals
The monastic festivals are annual events of the major monasteries that the local people eagerly look forward to attending, both for attaining religious merit and social entertainment. These are generally held to commemorate the establishment of a particular monastery, the birth anniversary of its patron saint, or some significant events in the history and evolution of Tibetan Buddhism. People turn out in the thousands to attend these festivals in their colorful best, making every event a carnival of colors.
The core event of the monastic festival is a highly choreographed ritual dance-drama known as 'Chhams', which is directed by the 'Chham-spon', the mystic dance master of the monastery. The dances are performed not only to dramatise the esoteric philosophy of the event for the benefit of the lay devotees, but also by way of ritual offerings to the tutelary deities of the monastery and the guardians of the faith. A select group of resident lamas of the monastery, dressed in brightly patterned brocade robes, perform these dances in the monastery's courtyard. They also wear masks representing various divinities, which are mostly found in the form of statues in the "Gon Khang", the room dedicated to the guardian divinities. Some dances also feature masks representing famous characters from historical episodes or Tibetan fables.
The more fearsome ones represent powerful divinities in their various manifestations, mostly representing the Dharmapalas or protectors of the faith. The dancers, holding ritual instruments in their hands, step around the central flagpole in the monastic courtyard in solemn dance and mime, in tune with the music of the monastic orchestra. The ritual instruments and the hand gestures or mudras of the dancers symbolize different aspects of the dance-drama.
In between the more somber sequences, relief is provided by a group of comic performers who jump into the scene in the guise of skeletons and other characters, performing comic and acrobatic feats. These also wear masks representing various divinities and religious or historical characters.
As the 'Chhams' approaches its end on the second and last day of the festival, the climactic scene is enacted, in which the votive offering, a grotesque human figure made from dough, is ritually cut into pieces and scattered in the four cardinal directions. This figure symbolizes the enemy of Buddhism and the embodiment of the three cardinal evils in the human soul, viz. ignorance, jealousy, and hatred. Accordingly, its destruction represents the killing of the enemy of Buddhism and the purification of the human soul from the three evils. This ritual is known as 'Dao Tulva'. It has many interpretations: Cleansing of the soul from evils, dissolution of the human body after death into its elements, or a re-enactment of the assassination of the Tibetan apostate King Lang-dar-ma by a Buddhist monk in 842 AD. In fact, the long-sleeved dress and the huge hat worn by the leader of the Black-Hat dancer, who executes this ritual in most festivals, represents the dress used by Lang-darma's assassin to conceal his identity.
The 'Rimpoche' or head lama incarnate of the monastery conducts the rites and ceremonies of the festival. He sits on a high throne placed in the center of the long veranda that runs along one side of the rectangular courtyard facing the huge, elevated gates of the monastery's main prayer hall or Du-khang. This room serves as the green room for the artists during the festival.
The lamas of the monastery and the monk musicians, in their full ceremonial attire, sit on carpet-covered cushions on either side of the throne in the veranda, according to their hierarchy.
The Rimpoche leads the lamas in the recitation of the mantras associated with the 'Chhams', thus creating the appropriate ambiance for the dancers to enact the role of the deities whose guise they adopt. For the lay devotees, however, seeing the masked dancers serves to familiarize themselves with the kind of deities they are to encounter during the 49-day- 'Bardo' or transition period between death and rebirth in one of the six forms of existence, depending upon one's karmic existence.
The monastic festivals also provide the local people an opportunity for socializing, trading and entertainment. On this occasion, makeshift markets spring up overnight near the monastery, to which people throng. During the summer festivals, the visiting people organize picnics, overnight excursions, and all-night singing and dancing parties.
For the more devoted villagers, however, the event is essentially a pilgrimage to the monastery and its various temples, for it is during this period only that they can see all the images and figures, which are otherwise kept veiled.
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