What does Lhasa Snow Festival mean?

Lhasa Xuedun Festival is a traditional festival in Lhasa.

Xuedun Festival is a national festival of Tibetan people in Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan and other provinces, and it is one of the national intangible cultural heritages. "Snow Festival" means a yogurt feast. In Tibetan, "snow" means yogurt, "rice" means "eating" and "feast", and the Snowdon Festival is interpreted as a festival to eat yogurt in Tibetan.

The Snowdon Festival is a primitive religious festival before17th century. According to folklore, because of the warm weather in summer, insects frighten all things to revive, and it is inevitable that monks will trample on life when they go out, which violates the commandment of "not killing".

Some people also call it "Tibetan Opera Festival" and "Buddha Exhibition Festival" because there are Tibetan Opera performances and Buddha drying ceremonies during the Snow Festival. In May, 2006, Xizang Autonomous Region declared the Snowdon Festival, which was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage, with the heritage number of X-3 1.

The Development Process of the Snowdon Festival

In A.D. 1642, the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism (Yellow Sect) came to power in Tibet. The 5th Dalai Lama Awang Lausanne Gyatso (A.D. 16 17 ~ 1682) was stationed in drepung monastery, Xidi-Lhasa, and became the political, religious and cultural center of Tibet at that time.

The fifth Dalai Lama was very talented since he was a child, and he liked literature and art very much, especially Tibetan opera. It was at his initiative and that of some other eminent monks that drepung monastery Xuedun Festival invited folk Tibetan opera teams to perform, which formed the festival custom of performing Tibetan operas in Zhebang Xuedun Festival.

1642 June 30th, the Tibetan calendar, is the day when the Fifth Dalai Lama shaved his head, the day when the old and new Iron staff Lama were handed over, and the day when the ban was lifted in summer. On that day, thousands of people flocked to drepung monastery to offer yogurt to the Fifth Dalai Lama and monks in drepung monastery, demanding to touch the top.

On this day, six Tibetan opera troupes with white masks and four Tibetan opera troupes with blue masks gathered in Lhasa gathered in drepung monastery to perform their own Tibetan opera repertoire. At this time, the Fifth Dalai Lama happily attended the banquet, accompanied by his teacher and accompanying monks and lay officials. Because the integration of Tibetan opera has added new meaning to the Xuedun Festival, it is also called "Tibetan Opera Festival".

Reference to the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Snowdon Festival