Held on the first day of the Tibetan calendar’s seventh month, around the time of August, the Tibetan Shoton Festival is also known as the Tibetan Opera Festival and is one of the grandest of the traditional Tibetan festivals. It is literally translated as ‘Yogurt Banquet’, but over time it has become more of a festival for opera. Celebrated mainly in Xigaze and Lhasa, before the 17th century it was purely a religious festival.
It is held on this day because it was traditionally the end of a ban on lamas cultivating themselves during the time between the 15th and 30th of the sixth month; after the ban has been lifted, the monks can go outside, have fun with folk singing and dancing and accept yogurt from the locals.
The festival originated in the Drepung Monastery, until the middle of the 15th century when the Fifth Dalai Lama moved to the Potala Palace. So, on the 30th of the sixth month, Drepung held Tibetan operas; the next day, the performances moved to the Potala palace to be performed for the Dalai Lama. Later on, the Norbulingka was built as the Dalai Lama’s summer residence and the Shoton Festival moved. The rituals continue and now the public are allowed to visit Norbulingka at the time of the festival.
Activities including stage performances go on for days, with performers coming from as far away as Yunnan and Sichuan. Thousands upon thousands carry colourful cloth-wrapped bundles as well as buckets of highland barley wine. Norbulingka is covered in tents and, beside these tents or under trees, celebrants drink, dance and sing for the whole day.
Nowadays, seminars, cultural events and exchanges of goods also take place here, giving this festival a central part in the lives of the Tibetan people.
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