Ruoergai Festivals

Ruoergai is located in the east of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and north of the Sichuan province. There are many tourism resources and local customs and practices which are very special. Local festivals will be introduced here in order to let you know more about Ruoergai festivals.

1. Du Jiong Festival

Du Jiong Festival is a traditional festival which has a history of thousand years. Du Jiong means removing evil and preventing plague. On May 5th of the Tibetan calendar, everyone will gather herbs to eat or smoke in order to show respect for God of mountain and remove evil as well as prevent plague. The herb is poisonous and elder man will mouldzanba into snake in order to remove evil and poison. It often lasts about three days. On that day, everyone will take part in it no matter how busy they are or how far they are. On this day, people will be vegetarian and wear splendid attire and gather to the God of mountain. Then old man and Buddhist monks and nuns will pray. Meanwhile everyone will also pray for safety and health, sitting on heels. After that, a strong man will go around the censer three times to sacrifice, which means completeness. When man does this, he will also burn zanba, hada and cypress branch together. Finally, it is most important part. People take off clothes and crawl on the ground. They are smoked and washed by herbs in order to obtain health and safety. In the end, people’s pray of health and safety are sent to the God of mountain together with the burning cypress smoke, making people’s heart and soul peaceful and calm.

Local Tibetans celebrate the Dujiong Festival

2. Kora Festival

Kora Festival is one of the main festivals in Zoige county. Generally speaking, it begins from May 4th, May 15th,June 15th of the lunar calendar one after another. On that day, everybody puts on festival attire and goes to the holy mountain with all kinds of foods made by butter, zanba(roasted barleyin plateau), plateau barley wine, Hada (ceremonial scarf), Long Da and cypress branch. On the first day of the festival, people will arrive at censer where it burns the cypress branch before dawn. People will replace the old arrow，knife，lance and flag with the new ones. It is called “Kaijian”(open arrow). Then, people will burn the cypress spice and throw the food into the censer. At this time, a highly-respected manwill read the scriptures for auspicious year. Then everybody follows and goes around the censer after the highly-respected man, putting Long Datoward the sky. During the Zhuan-shan Festival, you can enjoy yourself in some entertainment and traditiona Tibetan athletics activity.

In Kora Festival, the locals dance at the foot of the moutnain.

3. Ya-dun Festival

Ya-dun festival is a traditional festival in Ruoergai. It is usually held on June 15th every year and lasts about five to seven days. Ya-dun is Tibetan language and it means celebrating summer. Summer is the best season to visit Ruoergai Prairie. Everyone will go out for picnic at that time, enjoy beautiful scenery of trees, streams, as well as taste food and play games. The young man will have sports competition sports such as wrestling, riding, archery and throwing earth bags.　

The Horsing Racing in Yadun Festival in Ruoergai

4. Molang Festival

The Molang Festival, namely praying convocation, is the most important religious festival for praying safety and auspiciousness of the next year. It is also the biggest dharma assembly in local place. It is usually held during the new year of Tibetan calendar in all Buddhist temples. Sorcerer’s dance in a trance, Buddha exhibition, reading scriptures for pray, Tibetan opera performance and butter flower exhibition are the important contents during the Mo Lang Festival. People gather to the monastery， watching celebration ceremony and praying auspiciousness in the period of the festival. It is very spectacular.

Tibetan ritual masked dances in Molang Festival

Related Trips

• 
  6 Days Chengdu Hongyuan Ruoergai Huahu Jiuzhaigou Huanglong Flight Tour

  6 Days & 5 Nights
  Chengdu(1N) - Ruoergai (1N) - Jiuzhaigou (2N) - Chengdu(1N)

  View Details
• 
  7-Day Jiuzhaigou Huanglong Ruoergai Huahu Tour by road

  7 Days & 6 Nights
  Chengdu (1N) - Songpan(1N) - Jiuzhaigou(2N) - Tangke - Ruoergai(1N) - Huahu - Langmusi Temple - Ruoergai (1N) - Chengdu

  View Details
• 
  8-Day Nianbaoyuze Trekking and Langmusi Ruoergai Huahu Jiuzhaigou Tour

  8 Days & 7 Nights
  Chengdu(1 N) - Aba(1N) - camp(1N) - Aba(1N) - Langmusi(1N) - Jiuzhaigou(2N) - Chengdu

  View Details
• 
  8-Day Northern Sichuan and Southern Gansu Tour

  8 Days & 7 Nights
  Chengdu(1 N) - Songpan(1N) - Jiuzhaigou(2N) - Langmusi(1N) - Xiahe(1N) - Lanzhou(1N)

  View Details