Leh Ladakh Fairs & Festivals
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 religious philosophy of Buddhism, however, profound and subtle
doesn't preclude an immense joie-de-vivre among its Ladakhi adhe-rents,a nd
even solemn religious enactments are made the occasion for joyous celebration.
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 afer 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 fervour 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
