Recently, the 23rd Shoton festival took place at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, Dharamshala. I went there to capture some shots of the performances. While there, I was suddenly overcome with memories of my school days when our school used to take us students to watch the opera for one day. However, I vividly remember that we somehow bunk the opera session or else sleep during the time. As a result, I failed to form a constructive understanding of the rich Tibetan heritage of opera also known as ache Lhamo. So, this week as part of my Lhakar series, I decided to write about Shoton (the Tibetan opera festival) hoping to shed some light on Tibetan opera in the hope that those who are like me who don’t know much about opera know at least a little about the tradition.
Shoton festival is one of the most popular cultural festivals of Tibetan. Shoton is a transliteration of two words in the Tibetan language which means “the Yoghurt (Sho) Banquet (Ton)”, so this festival is a yogurt eating festival, that’s why the Shoton Festival is also called the Yoghurt Festival.
The festival is celebrated in the summer of the 5th lunar month – after 3 month’s retreat by the monks who stay within their monasteries to avoid walking on the emerging summer insects and killing them.
The festival mainly consists of 3 parts – Great Buddha Display, Tibetan Opera Show and Horsemanship & Yak Race Show. In combination, they represent the best of Tibetan religion, culture and tradition.
The operas, last all day with clashing cymbals, bells and drums; piercing recitatives punctuating more melodious choruses; hooded villains, leaping devils, swirling girls with long silk sleeves.
The history of Shoton Festival can be traced back to the 11th century when the Great Bangladeshi Buddhist Master Atisha was invited to Tibet to revive Buddhism that had been forbidden about two centuries on this highland, during which people suffered a lot from endless conflicts and wars. After decades of Atisha and his disciples’ hard work, the Buddhism spirits of charity, forgiveness, love and peace prevailed again in the society and for this, Atisha won much respect from people too; The Master Atisha likes eating Yoghurt, and the folks would present him with alms of yogurt when summer comes; reciprocally, the Master would pray for them. It is said that the livestock of the folks presenting yogurt to the Master would be free from disease, getting neither lost nor eaten by wild animals, with these known by more and more people, yogurt became a kind of holy food from that time.
At that time, the doctrines of Tibetan Buddhism had developed into more than 300 pieces, and the most important one is to avoid killing lives. While the vegetation became the most sufficient and the little creature all came out for food in summer, Atisha and his disciples all chose to stay inside the monastery to do meditation in case stamping any little creature into a death outside. This summer meditation retreat lasts from April to June according to the Tibetan calendar, and it is called “Yarne” in the Tibetan language. However, staying only inside the monastery for 3 months long brought lots of problems too for lamas, among which, food insufficiency was the biggest one. In order to acknowledge the kindness that was practiced, and the hardness that was endured by the lamas during their summer meditation retreat in the monastery, hundreds of thousands of people would flood to the monastery and offer their best home-made yogurt to the lamas upon their return from retreat in June, and that is how the Shoton Festival came into being.
In 1642, Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism took over the power in Tibet, and the Great Fifth Dalai Lama became the leader both in politics and religion. Thus, his dwelling place of Ganden Podrang at Drepung Monastery became the center of Tibetan politics, religion and culture. The great Fifth Dalai Lama was a fan of Tibetan opera, and it was under his decision that the Tibetan opera was introduced to the Shoton Festival. From that time, Tibetan opera has become a must-see highlight during the festival, yet at that time, the opera was only performed inside the Drepung Monastery and only open for lamas inside and some invited nobilities; but the Shoton Festival did take the lead in combing religion and entertainment on this forbidden land. The opera was performed in Drepung Monastery until 1653 when the Great 5th Dalai Lama moved his residence from Drepung Monastery to Potala Palace. However, when the 7th Dalai Lama was in power from 1720, he built Norbulingka Park as his summer palace in the western part of Lhasa city, and then, the stage for the Tibetan opera shifted to Norbulingka Park. And it is at that time too the Tibetan opera became open for the folks for the first time till now it becomes a must-see highlight for the folks during the festival.
Looking back again the Shoton Festival’s 1000 years history at Drepung Monastery, Potala Palace and Norbulingka Park will easily find this time-honored festival has rooted deeply in generations of Tibetan people’s life. The festival is surely the best time for any explorer to come to this mysterious land to discover and understand this old nation’s religion, culture and tradition.
Traditionally 12 major and minor troupes from central Tibet take part in this festival. However, after the Chinese invasion of Tibet, it came to an abrupt end.
After coming into exile, various opera enthusiasts revived the Ache Lhamo tradition. The very first opera troupe was established in Kalimpong, followed by more in Dalhousie, Bylakuppe, and Nepal. Taking further initiative, from the mid-1970s the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts officially included Ache Lhamo performance in the regular curriculum of its students.
Eleven troupes from different parts of India and one from Nepal participated in this year’s festival at Dharamshala. Each troupe presented a different theme.