Shoton Festival
The Shoton Festival, widely known as the Yogurt Festival or Banquet, is an annual festival held at Norbulingka or "Jewel Park" palace in Lhasa, Tibet. Shoton is a transliteration of two words in the Tibetan language which means "the Yoghurt (Sho) Banquet (Ton)", so this festival is featuring in eating yogurt, that's why the Shoton Festival is also called the Yoghurt Festival.
The festival is celebrated in the summer, from the 15th to the 24th of the 5th lunar month - usually about the middle of August, after a month's retreat by the monks who stay within their monasteries to avoid walking on the emerging summer insects and killing them.
Great Buddha Tangka Display ceremony marks the beginning of the annual Tibetan Shoton Festival. The 500-square-meter (598-square-yard) large Great Buddha Tangka on the hillside back to the Drepung Monastery is the prelude to the festival, in order to get a better position to view the unveiling of the Great Buddha, some Tibetan people wake up as early as 2 or 3 A.M. to rush to the monastery. You will find people jostling each other in the crowd even you have been there at 5 A.M., and the whole mountain will be fully dotted with people before the daybreak. About 7 A.M., along with the sutra horns blaring though the valley, the 20 meters long folded Buddha in the monastery will be carried by scores of the strongest lamas all the way to the big platform built along the hillside for unveil and display. At 8:00 A.M., as the sutra horn and scripture reciting goes on, a huge figure of Sakyamuni embroidered in color is gradually unfolded; at the same time, the first light, blazing through the morning mist, shines on the Great Buddha, which is called the combination of deities and mankind. Then followers will start worship and present Khada to the Great Buddha, and touch the Great Buddha by the forehead to show devotion, praying for safety, happiness and fortune.
The history of Shoton Festival can be traced back to the 11th century when the Great Bangladeshi Buddhist Master Atisha was invited to Tibet to revive Buddhism that had been forbidden about two centuries on this highland, during which people suffered a lot from endless conflicts and wars. It began in the 16th century with a banquet given by the lay people for the monks featuring yoghurt.
Later on, summer operas, or Lhamo, and theatricals were added to the festivities. The operas, "last all day with clashing cymbals, bells and drums; piercing recitatives punctuating more melodious choruses; hooded villains, leaping devils, swirling girls with long silk sleeves. In the past dancers came from all over Tibet, but today there is only the state-run Lhasa Singing and Dancing Troupe." The beautiful grounds of the Norbulingka are filled with partying groups shielded from the wind by gaily coloured hanging walls of rugs and printed canvas. There is much feasting and visiting between family groups and bonfires are common at night.
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