Aba Festival (Monlam)
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- The picture shows an annual Buddha Thangka unfolding ceremony is held in Geerdeng Monastery, Aba, a remote town of Kham.
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- It happens at Geerdeng monastery of Aba county
The picture shows an annual Buddha Thangka unfolding ceremony is held in Geerdeng Monastery, Aba, a remote town of Kham.
Aba Festival (FK01)
The Aba Festival is a traditional festival of Tibetan religion, also called Monlam, which means ‘Prayer’. According to the legend, in the first month of the year, Buddha conquered or converted six holy men of false religions. This is the greatest religious festival, instituted by Tsongkpa in 1409, the founder of the Gelukpa sect. This trip takes us onto the Tibetan Plateau to attend and witness the holy festival.
Festival Date:
January 1 – 15 of the Chinese Lunar Calendar
January 13th is the day for Thangkar unfolding
Please contact us for the exact dates on the Gregorian calendar.
Itinerary
Day 2 Chengdu to Barkham: The road is curve along the Ming River slowly going up to reach Barkham, the Capital of Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. Barkham is an area rich in pasture land, forest and arable alpine valleys, with a cool temperate climate, it is situated at an elevation of 2,670 meters and running in a long stretch along the Suomo River, has been well planned. Before we arrive at Barkham, we will visit to Dzokji village, which is composed by a fieldstone 5F Tibetan house and a stone fortification built almost one hundred years ago. It’s thought to be one of he oriental architecture wonders, a witness of the traditional Tibetan Official System
Day 3 Barkham to Aba: Departure from Barkham, following the curved road along Suomo river upstream all the way to the turn off where to take north onto Tibetan plateau, the road is getting more straight, and the view is becoming widely, the paved road crossing through the grassland, which dotted by hundreds of thousands of yaks, sheep, leads up to one unnamed mountain head north to Aba, which is located in the northwest of Kham. Aba is named after the Nga-chu tributary of Mar-chu, which flows south from Mt. Nyenpo Yurtse, is an area where nomadic groups and long established sedentary communities intermingle. Once we reach into this town we are going to visit the Gelukpa monastery of Geerdeng monastery and Langyi monastery
Day 4 & 5 & 6 Aba to Barkham: Geerdeng monastery is one of the major Gelukpa monastery of Aba, which held the traditional festival of Lamp once a year; during the two and half days in Aba, we are going to attend the festival to witness the very much seldom being visited scared Tibetan festival, Departure at noon of D6, return to Barkham.
Day 7 Barkham to Chengdu: After having breakfast, heading back to Chengdu by following Ming River down stream, en route enjoy the view along the road. After arriving in Chengdu, we will visit to Wenshu Temple, which lays in the northern part of the center of this town. This Buddhist temple ” the Temple of the Buddha of Wisdom” is built during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), destroyed during the Ming dynasty and rebuilt in 1691. Nowadays Wenshu Temple is one of the most active Buddhist centers in Sichuan as well as in China.
Day 8 Chengdu to the airport for departure.
