Shoton Festival
01 · Historical Records
Before the seventeenth century the Shoton Festival was a primitive religious festival activity. According to popular tradition, because the weather grows warm in summer, the hundred insects stir from hibernation and all things revive; if monks go out and about during this period they inevitably trample and kill living beings, violating the precept against taking life. After the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism came to power in 1642, the Ganden Podrang Palace in Drepung Monastery, residence of the Fifth Dalai Lama, became for a time the political, religious and cultural center of Tibet. After Norbulingka was completed in the early eighteenth century, the activities of the Shoton Festival moved from the Potala Palace to Norbulingka, and ordinary citizens were first allowed to enter the park to watch Tibetan opera. For two hundred years Lhasa saw the coexistence of the Drepung Shoton, the Potala Shoton and the Norbulingka Shoton, with the last as the center.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
'Shoton' means a banquet of yogurt. In Tibetan, 'sho' means yogurt and 'ton' means 'to eat' or 'banquet'; interpreted according to Tibetan usage, the Shoton Festival is a festival for eating yogurt. Because during the Shoton Festival there are grand and fervent Tibetan opera performances and a large-scale Buddha thangka unfurling ceremony, some people also call it the 'Tibetan Opera Festival' or the 'Buddha Exhibition Festival.' The traditional Shoton Festival opens with the unfurling of the Buddha image; its main contents are performing and watching Tibetan opera and popular outings in the park, accompanied by splendid yak races and equestrian performances. For this reason the Gelug precepts stipulate that from the fourth to the sixth Tibetan lunar month monks may only recite sutras and practice within the monastery, and only at the end of the sixth month is the retreat lifted. When the day of lifting the retreat arrives, monks come down from the monastery in succession; to reward them, lay people prepare yogurt, hold outdoor picnic feasts for them, and perform Tibetan opera at the celebration. This is the origin of the Shoton Festival. On the 30th day of the sixth Tibetan lunar month each year, thousands upon thousands of people pour into Drepung Monastery to offer yogurt to the Fifth Dalai Lama and the monks of Drepung, and to request blessings by the laying on of hands. The content of the Shoton Festival grew richer, and Tibetan opera came to be performed. According to records, the Tibetan opera troupes taking part in Shoton Festival performances were twelve in number: Zhaxi Xemba, Jiongba, Jianggaer, Xiangba, Juemulong, Tazhong, Lunzhugang, Langzewa, Bindunba, Ruoniega, Xirongzongzi and Gongbu Zhuoba. Thus this national traditional festival of more than three hundred years' history can in a sense be called a Tibetan opera festival. When Tibetan opera first entered the Shoton Festival its scope was still confined to within the monasteries; at first Drepung Monastery was the center of activity, hence the name 'Drepung Shoton Festival.' After the Fifth Dalai Lama moved from Drepung Monastery to reside in the Potala Palace, the Shoton Festival of the 30th day of the sixth lunar month each year still began with a Tibetan opera gathering-performance at Drepung Monastery, followed the next day by a performance at the Potala Palace for the Dalai Lama. Thereafter the activities of the Shoton Festival became more complete, forming a fixed traditional festival ritual. The Shoton Festival is an important festival of the Tibetan people and a concrete form in which Tibetan culture is transmitted and continued; observing it well is of positive significance for the Tibetan people's role in preserving the distinctiveness of their national culture, strengthening national unity and safeguarding the cultural diversity of the world.
The yoghurt offering at Drepung
On the thirtieth day of the sixth Tibetan month, thousands offer yoghurt at Drepung and ask for the blessings of the monks.
The exposition of images as prelude
The exposition of the sacred images opens the festival, followed by opera, by the fair, and last by bull-racing and horsemanship.
The opening of the summer retreat
Gelug rules keep monks inside from the fourth to the sixth month; the people meet them with picnic of yoghurt on the day the retreat closes.
Twelve opera troupes in rotation
Twelve named troupes, from Zhaxi Xueba to Gongbu Zhuoba, take the stage in a fixed order, making the festival a permanent theatre.
Yak racing and horsemanship
Yak races and horsemanship join the opera, letting wrestling, archery and drinking take their own half of the festival day.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In Lhasa alone three venues—the Drepung Shoton, the Potala Shoton and the Norbulingka Shoton—exist side by side, with the center at Norbulingka. The rotating arrangement of the three gives a single festival different viewing routes in order, and people can choose a venue according to the distance from their homes. Gradually granting city residents the right to enter the park and watch the opera was the key step by which the Shoton moved from inside the monasteries to a public space; Tibetan opera, once performed only within the monasteries, has now become a marketplace spectacle that millions of people may freely enter to watch.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The day the retreat is lifted, when monks come down from the monastery and lay people prepare yogurt to receive them, is a fixed moment of interaction between monks and lay believers in Tibetan Buddhism; all the warmth of the festival lies in this single descent and this single welcome. The long-standing, fixed performances of the twelve Tibetan opera troupes make the Shoton a direct source for the Tibetan opera ranks; at the same time the scale of the Buddha unfurling and the size of the audience make this festival shoulder both religious and mass entertainment functions.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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