Tibet Local Customs

 
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  • Sakya Monastery - of the Sakyapa Order
      Sakya Monastery - of the Sakyapa Order
    by Maria81
  • Inside the Assembly Hall of Tashilhunpo
      Inside the Assembly Hall of Tashilhunpo
    by Maria81
 
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Pilgrimage

by grets

Pilgrimage is not just a matter of walking to a sacred place and then leaving again. There are a number of activities that must take place to focus the concentration of the pilgrim. The act of kora, or circumambulation of the object of devotion, is one of the main pursuits. Auspicious numbers are three, 13 or 108 koras, with sunrise and sunset being especially auspicious times. Pilgrims will show devotion through prostration (chaktsal), which follows a sequence: placing your hands in a namaste (prayer-like) position, touching your forehead, throat and heart, getting down into a half-prostration and then lying flat out on the ground with arms outstretched. A particularly devout pilgrim will make his entire journey in this way, moving only the length of his body each time, marking his progress by a conch shell. Offerings are likely to be made during a pilgrimage, such as kathaks (white...

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Yak Butter

by grets

Yak Butter, refined from the milk of domesticated yaks, is the daily food of Tibetans. Yak butter is usually refines in the old way, by pouring heated milk into a large wooden bucket called “Xue Dong”. It is then powerfully beaten for several minutes to separate the fat from the water. Gradually, a layer of fat will float to the surface, which is then removed and placed in a leather bag or a stitched yak stomach to cool. Yak butter has a very high nutritional value but it smells really awful and rancid. Spending too much time near the stuff you end up smelling like yak butter too. Unfortunately yak butter has become an unpleasant slang words with sexual connotations.

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Yak Butter Lamps

by grets

Yak Butter LampsAs well as being used to create sculptures, yak butter is also utilised as a fuel for butter lamps. Tibetans burn bowls of yak butter instead of candles as light, and the smell of yak butter is all over Tibet, in every temple, chapel and monastery. The faithful will carry either a thermos flask from which they will top up the burning lamps with hot, melted butter, or a plastic bag with hard butter which they will spoon into the containers in the chapels. Yak butter lamps are quintessentially Tibet, and one of the things I will remember most about my visit.

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Yak Butter Sculptures

by grets

Yak Butter SculpturesYak butter has a significant use in ceremonies. In particular, the 15th day of the first month is a high point of the Great Prayer Festival (Smom-lam), and is known as the "Butter lamp day." The festival started after Tsong kha-pa had a dream where beautiful flowers and trees appeared in front of Buddha. He commissioned monks to make flowers and trees with coloured butter for the first Smom-lam in 1409.

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Protection for sensitive eyes

by grets

The Protector DeityInside the Protector chapels, or Gonkhang, there are images of various terrifying anti-gods and demons, most of whom have their faces covered up as they are deemed to be too frightening to be exposed.

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Sakyamuni Buddha

by grets

Sakyamuni BuddhaThe Sakyamuni Buddha, whose name literally means ‘sage of the Sakya’, is the founder of Buddhism, the historical Buddha. He is known in Tibetan as Sakya Thukpa. Here he is shown in the form of Jangchub Chenpo, and is flanked on both sides by 10 standing bodhisattvas, as well as the gatekeepers Hayagriva and Acala. Part of the central figure is original, and the other figures were sculpted by Chonyi Rinpoche and Semo Dechen of Lamaling.

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The Red Hat Sect

by grets

The Red Hat SectIn the ground floor chapel within the Utse, is a row of Red Hat Sect masters. The correct term for what many people call the Red Hat Sect, is the Kagyupa Order. This order of Tibetan Buddhism takes its lineage back through Milarepa and Marpa and eventually to the Indian mahasiddhas. It is divided into numerous sub-orders. The order emphasises the perfection stage of meditation and the practice of the Great Seal, which were introduced to Tibet by Marpa Lo-tsava in 1050 and Zhang Tselpa in 1150 respectively.

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Prayer Flags

by grets

Prayer Flags (darchok)Prayer flags come in five different colours, indicating the following representation:Blue = SkyGreen = AirYellow = EarthWhite = WaterRed = FireThey are positioned anywhere wind can get hold of them and distribute the blessing which are written on them by the sheer flapping movement. They are also known as Wind Horses (lungta)

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Wheel of Life

by grets

The Wheel of Life (Sipa Khorlo)The Wheel of Life is an intricate symbolic representation of all evil and its effect and how desire ties us to samsara, the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Yama, the Lord of Death, holds a disk to symbolise the impermanence of all existence. The circle leads the viewer from picture to picture along the black path or the white path, through the twelve interwoven causes and their consequences to rebirth. The inner circle shows a cockerel (representing desire) sinking his teeth into a pig (symbolising ignorance) who again is gnawing on a snake (standing for anger or hatred). The six inner sections represent the six realms of rebirth – gods, battling anti-gods, humans, hungry ghosts, demons from hell and animals. All beings are reborn through this cycle depending on their karma. Outside the wheel is an image of Buddha, showing his release into a...

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Mandalas

by grets

Mandalas (kyilkhor = ‘circle’)The mandala is associated with Tantric Buddhism, and is in effect a three-dimensional picture featuring an imaginary palace using various media such as paint, sand, models or even complete monasteries. Two-dimensional manadalas, such as paintings, can be perceived as three-dimensional through meditation. Manadalas are used during a ritual called sadhana where the devotee meditates on, invokes and identifies with a specific deity, before dissolving into emptiness and re-emerging as the deity itself. There are many different mandalas, each with different lessons to teach.Mandalas will typically include a central deity with four or eight smaller deities surrounding it, all of who are aspects of the inner image. These four or eight deities are often accompanied by a consort, frequently seen in several circles totalling many hundred deities. A devotee would hope...

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Local traditions and culture in Tibet

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Local Customs: Cities in Tibet
  1. Lhasa Local Customs
  2. Gyangze Local Customs
  3. Xigaze Local Customs
  4. Samyai Local Customs
  5. Zhigung Local Customs
  6. Lhaze Local Customs

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