"Life is not always what one wants it to be, but to make the best of it as it is, is the only way of being happy." ~ Jennie J Churchill

As the `Chhams' approaches the climax, the votive offering is a grotesque human figure made of dough which is ritually dismembered. This is traditionally done by `Jha Nak', or the leader of the Black Hat dancers. He then scatters the pieces in the four cardinal directions. This act has many interpretations: cleansing of the soul, the dissolution of the human body after death, a re-enactment of the assassination of the Tibetan apostate king Lang-dar-ma by a Buddhist monk in AD 842.

Life and After Life
The rites and ceremonies of the festival are conducted by the `Rimpoche' or Head Lama, incarnate of the monastery. He occupies a high throne in the centre of the verandah at one side of the rectangular courtyard. Other lamas sit on either side of the throne on carpet-covered straw mattresses, according to their hierarchy. The Lamas recite mantras associated with various episodes of Chhams' under the `Rimpoche's direction, thus creating the right ambience for devotees to imbibe the religious significance of the dances. According to traditional belief, the appearance of the masked dancers serves to familiarise the devotees with the kind of divinities they are expected to encounter during the 49-day, `Bardo' (or transit) period between death and rebirth in one of the six forms of existence depending upon one's Karma.

Monastic Festivals
The monastic festivals also provide an opportunity for socialising, trading and organising outings. A makeshift market springs up overnight outside the monastic complex. During the summer festivals, people organise picnics, overnight excursions, and all-night singing and dancing parties. The festivals of Ladakh are governed by the Tibetan lunar calendar.

Losar
How Ladakh got its new year
This New Year festival has an interesting history. In the 17th century, King Jamyang Namgyal decided to lead an expedition against the Balti forces during winter. He was advised that any expedition before the New Year would be inauspicious. Like Alexander's solution to the Gordion Knot, his solution was direct and simple. He advanced the New Year celebrations by two months, establishing a tradition that people still follow- celebrating Losar on the first day of the eleventh month of every year.

Losar is the most elaborate of all the socio-religious events of Ladakh. It involves the entire population of the region. Interestingly, the rites and rituals are a mixture of Buddhist and pre-Buddhist Bon religious practices. Preparations start at the end of the harvest period when people start stocking provisions, sheep and goats for the customary feasts as well as grain for brewing `chang' (a local barley beer). New clothes and jewellery are kept ready for the occasion.

The festivities start on the 29th day of the 10th month with the illumination of buildings and shrines. Sheep and goats reserved for the occasion are ritually slaughtered to begin the series of evening feasts within families, celebrated in rotation.

The New Year day itself starts with the offering of votives and greetings to various gods, elders, relatives and friends. Afterwards, the elders await the customary visitors who come to greet the family with presents and `Khatak'(ceremonial scarf). The younger members go out to visit other families. Leh and its adjoining villages wear a carnival look as people dress for the occasion. It is customary for Muslims and Christians in Leh to visit their Buddhist friends and greet them on the eve of Losar.

In the evening, the `Metho' ceremony takes place. The bazaars of Leh and the streets of villages are lit up as processions bearing flaming torches pass, with people chanting slogans to chase evil spirits and hungry ghosts, believed to be the result of bad Karma. Whirling torches create a fantastic display of fire and light. At the end of it all, the torches are thrown well outside the town to bid farewell to the old year and to welcome the new one. GU-STOR

The victory of Black Hat dancers over evil Gu-Stor literally means `sacrifice of the 29th day', traditional in the monasteries of the reformist Geluk-pa order of Tibetan Buddhism. This two-day long festival is held mainly in the Spituk, Thiksey and Karsha (Zanskar) monasteries, at different times every year.

The celebration ends with the dismemberment and dispersal of the `Storma' (sacrificial cake) by the leader of the Black Hat dancers in a ceremony called `Argham' or `Killing'. This symbolises the destruction of all forms of evil. And also re-enacts the assassination of the Tibetan apostate King Lang-dar-ma, by a Buddhist monk in the mid 9th century. In some monasteries, an effigy symbolising the stronger force of evil is burnt at the end of the festival. The masks worn by the dancers represent the guardian divinities (Dharmapalas) of the pantheon, and the patron divinities of the Geluk-pa order.

DOSMOCHE
Masked dances in the royal courtyard An ancient tradition started by the Kings of Ladakh, Dosmoche is still celebrated every year in February with great pomp and fervour. The courtyard of the chapel below the gates of the Leh Palace come alive with the music of masked lamas from different monasteries performing the sacred dance-drama. The lamas prepare, consecrate and eventually destroy the sacrificial offerings at the climax.

The tantra of `DO' : The lamas of the Takthok Monastery, the only Nyingmapa foundation of Ladakh, who are experts in tantric practice and astrology, prepare the elaborate `DO' or thread crosses - the main objects of offering, which ensnare all the evil spirits, hungry ghosts and demonic forces when the prescribed mantras and requisite rites are performed by the lamas.

Dosmoche celebrations are also held in the Likir (Indus valley) and Deksit (Nubra valley) monasteries. In Deksit, a number of folk dances are performed as interludes to the `Chhams'.

Monastic Festivals
The monastic festivals also provide an opportunity for socialising, trading and organising outings. A makeshift market springs up overnight outside the monastic complex. During the summer festivals, people organise picnics, overnight excursions, and all-night singing and dancing parties. The festivals of Ladakh are governed by the Tibetan lunar calendar.

TSE-CHU
The festival of Padmasambhava
The 10th day (Tses-Chu) of the Tibetan lunar month is celebrated as the birthday of Padmasambhava (Guru Rimpoche), the founder of Tibetan Buddhism. The Hemis Monastery celebrates this event in the form of a 2-day festival. Its resident lamas perform sacred masked dances leading to the destruction of sacrificial offerings. Masks worn by the lamas represent various guardian divinities of the Dugpa order, of which Hemis is the leading establishment in Ladakh.

This 200 year-old tradition was introduced by a member of Ladakh's ruling family who was reincarnated in the 18th century as the monastery's Head Lama, 'Sras Rimpoche'. The Hemis dances are a re-enactment of the magical feats of Padmasambhava, in his services to the cause of Buddhism in his eight different manifestations. The festival is particularly auspicious every 12 years in the Tibetan year of the Monkey, when the two-storey high Thangka depicting Padmasambhava is displayed. This famous Thangka, richly mbroidered with pearls and semi-precious stones, is due to be displayed next in AD 2004.

As the Hemis festival is held during the peak summer season, it attracts the largest number of people both from within and outside Ladakh.

MATHONAGRANG
The festival of the blindfolded acrobatic oracle monks On the 15th day of the 1st Tibetan month, a 2-day festival is held at the Matho Monastery, the only Saskyapa monastic establishment in Ladakh. During this festival, the two oracles of the monastery make a public appearance in their full spiritual form. These oracles, actually monks of the monastery, meditate in complete isolation for a full month in preparation of entering in a state of trace and invoking the spirit of the deities. On the day of the festival, they invoke and receive the deities and come into their full spiritual trance. They run over the high-rise ramparts of the monastery, jump from one balcony to anther and execute a number of acrobatic feats, all blindfolded! People from far and wide come to hear the oracles predict key future events and to seek answers about their own future.

STOK GURU TSE-CHU
When even laymen can predict the future Yet another festival of oracles, this is held in Stok, the present seat of royal residence. The two Stok oracles, unlike those at Matho, are laymen, spiritually cleansed and prepared by the lamas of the Spituk Monastery to receive the spirit of the deities. As in Matho, people repose abiding faith in the predictions made by the Stok oracles.

PHYANG TSEDUP
Pilgrimage to the Thangka
Phyang is one of the two Dringungpa Monasteries in Ladakh. This monastery, 17 km west of Leh, holds its festival in July/August. Like other monastic festivals, sacred dance-dramas or `Chhams' form the core of this festival. But the main attraction for the devotees is the pilgrimage to the huge Thangka of Skyabje Jigten Gombo, founder of the Dringungpa monastic order, which is kept on exhibition during the two-day festival.

YURU KABGYAT
An awesome spectacle
This 2-day festival is celebrated in July, in the spectacularly situated monastery of Lamayuru, about 127 kms west of Leh. The masks worn by the lamas during the dances represent guardian divinities from the Dringungpa pantheon. As in the case of other monastic festivals, the sacred dance-drama concludes with the destruction of the sacrificial offerings. Devotees come by the hundreds to witness the celebrations.

GALDAN NAMCHOT
Tsongkhapa's Birthday and Buddhahood
This socio-religious event is celebrated to observe the birthday and the buddhahood of Tsongkhapa, the Tibetan saint-scholar who founded the Gelukpa school of Tibetan Buddhism during the 14th century. The Gelukpa school later developed as the dominant monastic order in Central Tibet. The festivities include illumination of all monastic, public and residential buildings throughout Ladakh. Namchot heralds the beginning of the New Year celebrations, which continue till the festival of Dosmoche. During this festival, it is customary to prepare various varieties of the traditional dish, thukpa, and serve it to visiting friends and relatives to mark the festival.

Compiled by Puneet Sachdeva