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Fairs & Festivals
The
religious philosophy of Buddhism, however, profound and subtle doesn't
preclude an immense joie-de-vivre among its Ladakhi adhe-rents, and even
solemn religious enactments are made the occasion for joyous celebration.
Many of the annual festivals of the gompas take place in winter, a
relatively idle time for the majority of the people. They take the form of
dance-dramas in the gompa courtyards. Lamas, robed in colourful garments and
wearing often startlingly frightful masks, performs mimes representing
various aspects of the religion such as the progress of the individual soul
and its purification or the triumph of good over evil. Local people flock
from near and far to these events, and the spiritual benefits they get are
no doubt heightened by their enjoyment of the party atmosphere, with crowds
of women and men, the opportunity to make new friendships and renew old
ones, the general bustle and sense of occasion.
The biggest and
most famous of the monastic festivals, frequented by tourists and local
alike, is that of Hemis, which falls in late June or the first half of July,
and is dedicated to Padmasambhava. Every 12 years, the gompa's greatest
treasure, a huge thangka - a religious icon painted or embroidered on cloth
- is ritually exhibited. The next unveiling is due to take place in A.D.
2004. Other monasteries which have summer festivals are Lamayuru (also early
July), Phiyang (late July or early August), Tak-thok (about ten days after
Phiyang) and Karsha in Zanskar (11 days after Phiyang). Like Hemis, the
Phiyang festival too involves the exhibition of gigantic thangka, though
here it is done every year.
Spituk, stok, thikse, chemrey and
Matho all have their festivals in winter, between November and March. Likir
and Deskit (Nubra )time their festivals to coincide with Dosmoche, the
festival of the scapegoat, which is also celebrated with fervor at Leh.
Falling in the second half of February, Dosmoche is one of two New Year
festivals, the other being Losar. At Dosmoche, a great wooden mast decorated
with streamers and religious emblems is et up outside Leh. At the appointed
time, offerings of storma, ritual figures moulded out of dough, are brought
out and ceremonially cast away into the desert, or burnt. These scapegoats
carry away with them the evil spirits of the old year, and thus the town is
cleansed and made ready to welcome the new year.
Losar falls about
the time of the winter solstice, any time between 8th and 30th December. All
Ladakhi Buddhists celebrate it by making offerings to the gods, both in
gompas and in their domestic shrines.
