The Great Prayer Festival

Arrival in Xining, the capital city of Northwest China’s Qinghai province. Xining is the capital of Amdo area of Tibet, Meet the guide and transfer to hotel and spare time the rest of the day.

Drive to Repkong. On the way visit Kumbum monastery of Gelukpa sect, which was built in 1560 in Rushar county and also one of the six grand monasteries in Tibet. After that drive to Repkong, and visit of Rongwo monastery of Gelukpa sect which was initially constructed as a monastery of Sakya-sect.

In the morning we set out for approx. 3km to Gomar Monastery to have a fantastic view of perhaps the biggest breakfast in the world this morning. Local Tibetans bring their milk tea and breakfast in the monastery and talk about their stories happened last year and exchange their ambition for the coming year. Today’s highlight is the grand ceremony of Sunning the Buddha in the afternoon. Tibetans traditionally place a huge painting or embroidery of the Buddha Thangka on the slope of a hill to share the benefit of Buddhism with all the creature.

Whole day at Wutun monastery and Wutun village, the center of Tibetan Repkong-Art, which is a successful mixture of religion and folk art. Enjoy the cham dance at Wutun and take photos.Visit a family of a Repkong artist and look at how to make the monks Thangkas.

Full day visit the Cham Dance in Gomar monastery.Guomari in Tibetan means red gate. Apparently the gates of nearby Tibetan village are all in red as well because this village used to be very wealthy and they could afford to decorate their gates with red copper in the old days. Today we will join local Tibetans for their Cham Dance. The Cham dance calls on traditions that date back more than 500 years. The fourth Panchen Lama went to Shambala through meditation and created the Cham Dance according to the cham dance in Shambala and the fifth Dalai Lama formalized the dances in the Cham Yig book, and each monastery has created its own unique interpretations over the centuries. Cham performances and ceremonies feature sacred masked dances, sacred music, healing chants and spectacular richly ornamented multicolored costumes. The dancers use symbolic hand gestures known as madras to transmit healing powers from the deities. With accompanying narration and a monastic debate demonstration, the program provides a fascinating and warm glimpse into ancient and current Tibetan culture.

Morning visit further the Cham Dance in Gomar monastery. In the afternoon drive to TaktsangLhamo. which is 2,900 meters above sea level and almost exclusively inhabited by Tibetans. On the way, we can also do a quick visit to the Labrang Monastery.

The highlight of Monlam Festival is the Sunning the Buddha. We will join a large crowd of Buddhists who have been waiting since the early morning for today’s special event, the annual ‘sunning of the Buddha’ ceremony. The huge thangka will be carried out of the hall towards a mountain range to be spread along the slope of the Mountain located between two monasteries.  Along the way, crowds of worshippers will gather around to touch the thangka in order to get the New Year blessing, and later sing, dance and hold prayer sessions to celebrate the occasion.

Enjoy and participate to the Cham dance in Taktsang Lhamo. All participants as pilgrims from near and far, farmers, nomads and tourists at the ceremony could receive blessings by touching our heads from a high rank lama.

In the morning drive back to Labrang, en route visit the Milarepa tower in Hezuo. At night visit an exhibition of yak butter sculptures, which have an almost surreal beauty when lit under the lamps. Visitors invariably touch the flower shelf with their foreheads to show their respect toward the Buddha.

Join the local Tibetans in the morning for their ritual ceremony of Turning the Buddha. Maitreya Buddha of 3m high made of silk will be carried by a group of monks to Kora the Labrang Monastery; of course large crowds will follow this ceremony again in order to get blessings. Then drive to Lanzhou,

Spare time till check out and transfer to Lanzhou airport for departure flight.