Shotun Festival Iitnerary A: Lhasa and Namtso Lake Sightseeing

Tour Code: TFT-001-A
Tour Catalog: Private Tour
Trip Length: 7 days

Shotun(yoghurt) festivals
“Shotun” in Tibetan means sour milk banquet. As Tibetan operas are performed and Buddha paintings are exhibited at this time, it is also called “Tibetan Opera Festival” or “Buddha Exhibition Festival”.
Shotun festival is the most important and attractive for the Tibetans with full of ethnic songs and dances along with famous Tibetan opera performing at Norbulingka Palace. Hundreds of thousands of Tibetan gather at Drepung, Sera monastery to see the famous Buddha Thangka.

Origination of Shotun festival: Tsongkapa master had initiated a rule on monks to concentrate on meditation in monasteries from april to june according to Tibetan lunar calendar to avoid killings and earning demerits during that days. After finishing these days, the local Tibetan laymen use to serve them curds, perform Tibetan opera and will go for picnics and later strengthen to new festival in Tibet.

Schedule of Shotun Festival in 2009 and 2010

Day 1Arriving at Lhasa through Airplane or through trains.

Our agency will arrange yours tour guide and driver to pick you up from the train station or from airport to yours reserved hotel.
Overnight in Lhasa .

Day 2Visiting the famous Potala palace, Jokhang and Barkhor street.

In the morning section, you are going to visit the famous Patala palace, which is the land mark of lhasa and is recently considered one of the seven wonders of the world. Afternoon section, visiting Jokhang temple, built mainly for the “Jowoe” bring along with princess Wencheng from Xi’an during Tang dyansty and is grouped into world cultural heritage list by the UNESCO. Then exploring the famous old Barkhor street, enjoing shoping traditional Tibetan things around the street. Overnight in Lhasa.

Day 3The day before Main Day of Shotun Fastival

Exploring chapels of Drepung monastery and Sera monastery.
Today, you will visit the whole chapels of Drepung Monastery and Sera Monastery as it would be closed for the main day.

Drepung monastery is situated at the foothill of a mountain and was founded by Jamyang Choeje in 1416. the monastery is divided into two different colleges that is Drepung loselling and Drepung Gomang college. The Ganden podrang is famous among them as it is the government centre during fifth Dalai lama and later moved to the famous Potala palace during fifth Dalai lama.
In the afternoon exploring the Sera monastery which was founded in 1419 by Tsongkapa’s disciple Jamchen Choeje. The whole monastery is divided into two colleges and there are Sera ‘jhe’ and Sera ‘may’ respectively. Among them “Tsokhang chenmo” where the monks from all the colleges assemble and pray together there.You can also see monks debaiting there in the courtyard at around 4-5:30 in the afternoon section.
Overnight in Lhasa

Day 4The Main day of Shotun Fastival

A day is served for you along with your guide to celebrate Shotun festival.The chapels of Monastery will be totally closed at the main day, the buddha show and other activities of Shotun Fastival will be held outside of these monasteries. We should go Drepung and Sera again to take part in these wonderful acitivites

The day is the busiest for you during your Tibet tour. Early in the morning, you can see Lamas hanging Tangka at Derpung monastry where thousands of crowded Tibetans waitng for Jampa Tangka. Then you can go towards the Sera to see the Tangka where crowded Tibetans throwing Khada on the Sacred Tangka. At Norbulingka you can see the active Tibetan opera dancing performed by the local Tibetans.
 

Day 5Lhasa/Namtso Lake/Yangpachen Hot Spring/Lhasa

Driving towards the yangpachen hot spring and the sacred lake Namtso.(240km)with good black asphalt surface.

Namtso is Tibetan word, means “heavenly lake”is situated in Damxung county with about 240km from Lhasa. The lake is 70km long, 30km in wide,35m and is second largest lake in china. The melted snow and ice of the Nyenchen Thangla mountains forms the water supply of Namtso. Through this journey you can see the most famous ice-capped Nyenchen Thangla mountain ranges and Yangpachen geothermal power station and hot spring pool. Also pesture land where the nomads gaze their animals and you feels like the whole pesture is dotted with yaks.

Day 6Tsurphu monastery

Visiting Tsurphu monastery(65km) west of lhasa with rough bumpy roads upto the monastery from few kilometres from Duilong county.
Tsulpu monastery is situated about 65 km west of Lhasa and is the set of Karmapa, branch of the Kagyupa order of Tibetan buddhism. The Karma Kagyu are also known for its unique black hat. The Kamapa have the longest history of reincarnation system in the whole Tibet as the present Karmapa(Orgen Thinley Dorjee) is the 17th reincarnation. The main monastery of Karma Kagyupa sect is situated in sikkim in India. The Tsulpu monastery was founded in 1187 by Dusum Khyenpa, some 40 years after he established the Karmapa order in Kham where he was born. .

Day 7Leave Lhasa

Return back to Lhasa Airport and flew towards yours home town. Our agency tour guide and driver will see you off to the airport and flew back to your hometown.