Illumination Festival

Illumination Festival is an activity held to commemorate the death of Tsongkapa who is a great Buddhism reformer and founder of Gelukpa sect. This festival is held in October 25th in Tibetan calendar. In this day, all the monasteries and herdsmen in every village which belong to Gelukpa sect will lighten butter lamp on the altar in every monastery and household, and the lamp will not go out for all night. People will dress festival clothes and gather together in front of the monastery in which will chant sutra for great Buddhas. People will chant the "six words scripture" loudly, praying and kowtowing to the Buddha. Males in every village will take prepared cypress branches and ride a horse to the nearby pagoda, to chant the prayer loudly and hold a solemn burning incense ceremony. And they will throw the Ronda into sky, which is with the designs of lion, tiger, dragon, large bird on it. Then, the riders will performance equestrianism for the monks in monasteries and all the villagers; young boys and girls will dance "Guozhuang" (a kind of Tibetan dance); the elders will sit on the stand to drink and chat; singers will sing songs to bless; the folk artists will tell the folk long poem, biography of Gesaer and so on. After the full moon rising up, people will support the elders and carry the children in hand, chanting "six words scripture" and happily go home.