Crowds Gather to Celebrate the Shoton Festival

By Lodoe Gyatso / April 23, 2018;

Photo: Lodoe Gyatso/Contact

The 23rd Tibetan Opera Festival, also known as the Shoton – or Yoghurt – Festival, took place from April 20 to 24 at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) in Dharamshala. The festival celebrates the unique Tibetan artistic heritage of opera or Ache Lhamo. This year’s festival had been postponed by two days as a mark of respect for the people who have suffered the recent school bus accident in Himachal Pradesh which killed 27 people, including 23 children.

In his opening remarks on the first day of the festival, Sikyong Lobsang Sangay, President of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, gave a brief background of the festival and explained how the festival came to be called Shoton. “In Tibet, the monks of Drepung monastery end their annual summer meditation by eating Yogurt. The people from nearby towns come to the monastery at this time to offer yogurt and seek the blessings of the monks. Opera troupes also come to perform at the festival and that’s how it came to be called Shoton – the Yogurt Festival,” he said.

CTA President Dr Lobsang Sangay
Photo : tibet.net

Sikyong also spoke about Tibetan opera and its historical links, and its importance to the preservation of Tibetan culture and promotion of social work saying, “Tibetan opera has become an intrinsic part of Tibetan culture”.

In an interview with Contact magazine, Wangdue Tsering, Director of the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, said that next year the festival will be held in South India.

Nyima Woenang, 31, of McLeod Ganj, attended the festival. He said, “It is a very special day. When I was seven years old I went with my mother to the festival in Tibet. Now I recall my childhood.”

Artists performing
Photo: tibet.net

Another attendee, Kunsang, 53, also of McLeod Ganj, added his enthusiasm. “Today is very important. We must pass on Tibetan culture and religion from the older generation to the younger generation.”

Eleven troupes from different parts of India and one from Nepal participated in this year’s festival. Performances were staged at TIPA with and concurrent performances taking place at Norbulingka Institute and Tibetan Childrens Village School Chauntra.