2019 Katok Festival Date is confirmed to be held in the three days from 2019 August 8th to August 10th; August 10nd should be the day for the traditional day of unfolding Thangka ;
2019 Katok Festival
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Labrang Monastery Noon Lesson
Labrang monastery Noon Lesson begins almost at 12:00 o’clock everyday except Sunday;
When time is approaching 11:50 am , two monks come to the roof top of the assembly hall and blowing Conch, the sound is a single to tell the monk students gathering together in the main hall.
The monks students are generally separated as two parts. Each part is leaded by one Teacher, all this is to proceed in the big yard of
assembly hall, approximately 5-8 minutes all students are there, after rechecking by teachers, monk students will be guided into
assembly hall and be seated on the seats begin praying, while having their lunch.
When monk students walk into assembly hall, local Tibetan whom want to pray together with monks and learn usually remove their shoes and following monks entering the hall and sit by the side of hall.
2018 Litang Festival
2018 Litang festival is now begin, it is now with name of “Litang Cang Yang Dya Tso Poem Festival”. It last 4 days from August 2nd to August 5th. The programs are listed below:
Opening ceremony
Time：August 2nd, 20:00 – 22:00 pm
Location: Litang Kang Nan Entertaining Center
Traditional Horse-racing
Time: The morning of August 3rd and 4th from 09:00 – 11:30 am
Location: Litang 8.1 Horse-racing Field
Sichuan Provincial Minority Writer Training and Poem Festival interview
Time: August 1st to 4th
Photography Exhibition
Time: August 2nd to 4th
Location: Rentang Ancient Street and Shuang Chuang Developing Area
Tibetan Merchandise Trading
Time: August 3rd to 5th
Location: King Gesar Plaza
Art Performance
Time: August 3rd from 14:00pm to 16:00 pm
Location: Litang Kang Nan Entertaining Center
Art Performance – The Fan Yin
Time: August 3rd – 4th evening
Location: Litang Fan Yin Practice Center
Kangba New Tibetan Dress performance
Time: August 3rd from 20:00 pm to 21:30 pm
Location: Litang Kang Nan Entertaining Center
Tibetan Traditional Dance of Guozhuang contest
Time: August 4th from 14:00 pm to 17:30 pm
Location: Litang 8.1 Horse-racing Field
Tibetan Traditional Play
Time: August 3rd 4th in the evening
Location: Litang Tibetan Traditional Play Center
Qinghai Travel Ban
Qinghai Province has recently announced Qinghai Travel Ban on several national level nature reserves, including the Yellow River Source Area of Eling lake and Zha Ling Lake in Mado county; Nyempo Yurtse in Jigzhi county, Bird island and Sand island of Qinghai lake, Mt Qilian
In recent years, the rapaidly developed tourism and outdoor activities have become more popular in those region, in which visitors have poured in that results envirment damage, the left garbage and related activities of supplying has polluted local pasture and water sources. also the local wild life have been impacted by the approaching visitors.
In order to protect the local nature environment, Qinghai local authority has made the decision and activate the travel ban on those urgently protection-needed area; the reopen time is not for sure for the moment.
2019 Aba Festival Date updated
2019 Aba Festival date has been confirmed in between February 17th to 20th. The 2019 Aba Festival Tour has been updated accordingly
Lhasa helicopter travel route confirmed
Source: Xinhua
Recently, the Lhasa helicopter travel route, which is operated by Lhasa Xueying General Aviation Co. Ltd., has been confirmed. The route is heliport–Liuwu Bridge– Intercontinental Hotel–heliport and the total flying time is about 12 to 15 minutes. From now on, Lhasa of Tibet officially open the air-travel
Besides, the Lhasa Xueying General Aviation Co. Ltd. are also engaged in emergency rescue, medical aid, and short-distance transportation.
Potala Palace Entrance Ticket New Policy
Potala Palace Ticket New Policy has just been announced by the Potala Palace Management due to the rapidly growing number of tourists, that all entrance tickets will have to be booked in advance. In addition, the number of visitors is limited at different times of a day. All those institutions are made to minimize damage to the earth structure and to protect cultural relics in Potala Palace.
- The entrance tickets for Tour groups can be booked online one day earlier
- Individual travelers are required to get the entrance tickets at the ticketing office one day earlier
For the moment, the Potala Palace received 3,000 tourists on a daily basis, and the number of visitor has been increasing, by the time of the high travel season, the daily visitor to Potala palace may be over 10,000 people or more;
According to the Management for the Potala Palace that with the promotion of “winter tours in Tibet－enjoy the world’s third pole”, all A-class tourist attractions in Tibet are open to tourists and citizens for free from Feb 1st to April 30th.
Tibet publishes rare books about King Gesar epic
Source : Xinhua
As part of efforts to preserve the 1,000-year-old epic, Four books about the Epic of King Gesar have been released, according to researchers in Tibet Autonomous Region.
The Epic of King Gesar has about 200 episodes and being believed to be the one of the world’s longest epics. It tells how an 11th century Tibetan demigod king conquered his enemies and helped the ordinary people.
The epic has been passed down orally by singers, often illiterate herders or peasants from Tibet, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region or Qinghai Province (Previously Amdo ), who have often claimed they were spontaneously repeating the lines after a strange dream or serious illness.
The four new publications of King Gesar epic are chanted by three folk singers, said Tsering Phuntsog, the director of ethnic studies center in the Tibetan Academy of Social Sciences.
One book is on the Tibetan mastiffs, two are about tribal wars, and the fourth is about how Gesar conquered a region and distributed gold to the people.
Each book is around 200,000 words. The books belong to a project called “Exclusive Renditions of Folk Artists on King Gesar,” which aims to publish 20 books, chanted by 14 artists. So far, 14 books have been published. Unlike the main stories of the epic, which are sung by various singers, the exclusive translation can only be told by one or two artists.
Transcription, recording and video-making of the stories started in 2009, some of the books are scheduled to be translated into Mandarin Chinese, according to Tsering Phuntsog.
The epic of King Gesar was listed as a World Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009.
