Wangguo Festival
01 · Historical Records
The Ongkor Festival is a festival that grew naturally out of Tibetan farming society, with a history of more than fifteen hundred years to this day. The Tibetan highlands are dominated by highland barley, on which the year's harvest depends; during the summer, taboos in the fields are especially numerous—no putting the sickle to the crop, no trampling the seedlings, no moving the farm tools. Once the prohibitions were set, a common day for lifting them was needed. Combining the lifting of the prohibitions with prayers for the harvest was the key to Ongkor's survival: it is neither purely a reward to the gods nor pure entertainment, but binds together the prayer for the season's yield and the joy of release from constraint, re-enacted once a year. The festival's date is not fixed on the calendar; the villagers collectively decide it by watching how the crops are growing, which also determines its fundamentally agricultural character.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
"Ongkor" is a transliteration from Tibetan meaning "walking around the edges of the fields." Here, "wang" refers to the farmland and "guo" means going around in a circle. As a traditional festival by which Tibetan farmers lift the summer taboos on field management and celebrate the harvest, the Ongkor Festival is widely popular in the farming areas of Lhasa, Shigatze, Shannan, Nyingchi and Ngari in the Tibet Autonomous Region, and has a history of more than 1,500 years. The festival is usually held in the seventh and eighth months of the Tibetan calendar each year, though the exact date varies with the local agricultural season; it generally falls two or three days after the highland barley turns yellow and just before harvesting begins, and lasts one to three days. Festival activities are organized on the basis of the township, with the date collectively decided by local villagers according to the ripeness of the crops. On the morning of the first day of the festival, Tibetan farmers proceed around the fields holding "Data" ceremonial arrows and wheat ears, with scriptures on their backs. At the head of the procession is a ceremonial guard made up of lamas and elders, who hold Buddhist images aloft, carry scriptures on their backs and blow bugles; the other farmers follow behind, walking one circuit around all the fields of the village. The purpose of this ritual is to pray that nature grants the people a good harvest. Walking the fields is the most central form of activity of the Ongkor Festival; in this process a mighty procession moves between houses and land. When the procession returns, old and young of the whole village gather at the village entrance and offer cups of richly fragrant highland-barley wine to welcome the "warriors" of the field circuit home in triumph. After the circuit of the wheat fields, as customary, people hold a rich variety of activities in the square—Tibetan opera, song and dance, horse racing, archery and tug-of-war—with participants competing against one another in a lively scene. On this day, every household prepares ample food and wine and puts on beautiful dress. They either picnic on the grasslands around the square or invite relatives and friends in the village to feast together. In some areas, the Ongkor celebrations last three to four days, with the arrangements varying according to the length of the festival—more elaborate or simpler. The Ongkor Festival is a folk festival of collective participation by Tibetan villagers, set to the key of agricultural culture; at the autumn harvest each year, following conventions established by custom in the countryside, it is held at the appropriate best time and place in each village and township, passed down from generation to generation, with everyone taking part and performing anew year after year. In both connotation and extension, the Ongkor Festival encompasses religious ritual, competitive sport, and folk literary and artistic activities; it is one of the important vehicles of Tibetan folk activity, embodying the conceptual system of Tibetan farming civilization and the cultural logic of harmony between humanity and nature, with fairly deep social and cultural value.
Circling the fields
The heart of the festival: the procession leaves the village, threads between houses and fields, and walks a full circuit around all the farmland before the season truly opens.
The leading procession
Lamas and elders head the procession holding images high, books on their backs and blowing horns, followed by people carrying coloured arrows and sheaves of wheat.
Welcoming the returning procession
When the circuit is done the whole village gathers at the head of the lane with barley wine to receive those who walked the fields.
Games and contests on the square
After the circuit come opera, song and dance, racing, archery and tug-of-war on the square, with families inviting one another to feast.
Fixing the day by the harvest
The date is agreed by the village according to how the barley ripens, generally two or three days before the reaping; this returns the calendar to the crop.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Ongkor Festival is very widely distributed within the Tibet Autonomous Region, celebrated in the farming areas from Lhasa, Shigatze, Shannan and Nyingchi to Ngari; each village and township keeps the festival according to its own local agricultural calendar, with no need for a common date. The unit of organization is the township: the villagers decide the date by whether the highland barley ripens early or late, and the whole township acts together. At the head of the procession is the ceremonial guard of lamas and elders, and the rest follow with Data ceremonial arrows and wheat ears, walking one circuit around all the fields of the village. Festival length varies by township—some disperse after a single day, others celebrate for three or four days—elaborate or simple according to the slack or tightness of the farming season, yet the one circuit of the fields never changes.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In Tibet the Ongkor Festival is regarded as an important cultural activity, its value lying in both agriculture and society: from the agricultural standpoint, it is a mature set of seasonal concepts within Tibetan farming civilization, weaving phenology, taboos, harvest prayers and the lifting of prohibitions into a repeatable chain; from the social standpoint, organized by township with everyone taking part, it is the largest common gathering of the village community in the year, when dress, song and dance, horse racing, tug-of-war and Tibetan opera are all presented together. The coexistence of religious ritual, competitive sport and folk literary and artistic activity makes the festival's content far greater than sacrifice alone. The conventions passed down among the villages are re-confirmed in a single day by the whole township, and the collective identity across the villages is thereby reinforced year after year.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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