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THE annual Lhasa Shoton Festival will be held from August 10 to 16 this year and activities for the festival are in preparation. With the topic of "Visit Lhasa and Enjoy Shoton", the 2010 Lhasa Shoton Festival will witness art performances, forums, painting exhibitions and business exhibitions etc. to boost the development of tourism and culture in Lhasa.

During the 2009 Lhasa Shoton Festival, 29 art performances were held for 35,000 audiences and 27 official contracts about tourism, trade, ethnic handicraft etc. were signed with the total investment of 3.99 billion yuan.

Shoton Festival Background:

In Tibetan language, Shoton means yogurt banquet. So as the name suggests, the Shoton Festival is a festival for savouring various types of yoghurt and it is called "Yogurt Festival" as well. Other activities such as Tibetan Opera and Buddha Painting Displaying are held, so this festival is also dubbed as "Tibetan Opera Festival" and "Buddha Displaying Festival".

The Shoton (Sour Milk Drinking or Yogurt) Festival, held on the first day of the seventh month in Lhasa, Tibet, was strictly a religious festival prior to the 17th century. Local religious tenets required monks to remain sequestered in their monasteries for extended periods, with local people preparing sour milk for them to drink following their period of confinement.

Tibetan opera was introduced in the mid-17th century and the Yogurt Festival also became known as the Tibetan Opera Festival which was celebrated on a regular basis.

Thereafter, all religious and recreational activities were held outside of monasteries. Norbu Lingka was built in the early 18th century as the summer residence of the Dalai Lama. Later, it became the venue for the Shoton Festival. Ordinary people have since been permitted to visit Norbu Lingka festival day and the very same rituals remain the place even today.

Source: Tibet Travel News