Commonly known as the "Wongkor Festival", the Harvest Festival of Tibet is celebrated in a grand way. The festival has no fixed date and is celebrated when the crops are ripe and ready to be harvested. In fact, the Harvest festival lasts around to three to five days and is full of merriment, laughter and fun.
If you want to witness the true splendor of the Harvest festival, the farming villages in Tibet are the best places to go to. With a history of more than 1500 years, the Harvest festival formerly had religious undertones to it. But now the festival mainly focuses on arts, sports and entertainment. However, people still walk around the fields with scriptures to pray for a bountiful harvest, something quite akin to olden times. Nowadays, the Tibetans in Lhasa have combined the Wongkor Festival with the Army's Day.
As the Harvest Festival draws near, the farming villages of Tibet light up with activity as people start large scale preparations for this important event that is enjoyed by the young and old alike. Deserving special mention are the celebrations in Lhasa where people dressed in all their finery hold colorful flags and ears of barley as they carry a harvest tower made of barley stalks and ears. This procession goes around the fields with singing, dancing and music leading the proceedings.
The farmers in Tibet are a hardworking lot and the Harvest Festival offers them a welcome respite from their daily rigors. So they don't let go of the opportunity to indulge in some exciting sports, which are enjoyed by everyone. Horseracing and archery are the major sporting attractions during the Harvest festival. Sumptuous picnics and campfires are other enjoyable activities the people indulge in.
The Harvest Festival is an event you should be a part of during your Tibet tour. Just tell us at TSI Holidays and we are going to make sure that you have a vacation worth remembering.
