Hemis Festival

Hemis Festival

Usually in June or July

This three-day Buddhist festival takes place at the Hemis Gompa in the mountainous region of Ladakh in northern India. This is the largest gompa (monastery) in Ladakh and has gold statues, huge stone monuments of Buddha called stupas that are studded with precious stones, and an impressive collection of thangkas, or big scroll religious paintings.
The festival celebrates the birthday of Guru Padmasambhava, the Indian Buddhist mystic who introduced Tantric Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century. Tradition says he was a native of Swat (now in Pakistan), an area noted for magicians. Tradition also says he brought on an earthquake in Tibet to get rid of the demons who were delaying the building of a monastery.
The festival attracts people from throughout the mountain areas of Ladakh and Tibet—Muslims and Hindus as well as Buddhists, all dressed in their most colorful clothes. A fair springs up, with stalls selling confections, gems, and crafts.
The highlight of the festival is the Devil Dance of the monks ( see also Mystery Play of Tibet ). Demon dancers are costumed as satyrs, many-eyed monsters, fierce tigers, or skeletons, while lamas portraying saints wear miters and opulent silks and carry pastoral crooks. These good lamas, ringing bells and swinging censers, scatter the bad lamas, as they all swirl about to the music of cymbals, drums, and 10-foot-long trumpets. The dance is a morality play, a battle between good and evil spirits, and also expresses the idea that a person's helpless soul can be comforted only by a lama's exorcisms.

CONTACTS:
Jammu and Kashmir Government
Directorate of Information
Opposite Pratap Pk.
Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir 190 001 India
91-194-2452294; fax: 91-194-2452227
www.jammukashmir.nic.in

SOURCES:
RelHolCal-2004, p. 220