Tibetan opera fest begins at McLeodganj

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, April 20

Strong winds and showers in Dhauladhar mountain ranges marked the beginning of the 23rd Tibetan Opera Festival known as Shoton (Yogurt) festival at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) in McLeodganj on Friday.

The festival is celebrated every year by the Tibetan government-in-exile to exhibit unique Tibetan artistic heritage of opera called Ache Lhamo in Tibetan. President of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) Lobsang Sangay was the chief guest at the inauguration function.

The festival was earlier scheduled to begin on April 18 but was postponed due the tragic bus accident in Himachal Pradesh that killed 28 persons, including 24 children.

Lobsang Sangay, while speaking on the occasion, said, “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.”

It is said that Thangtong Gyalpo, a Tibetan yogi and mystic, led an opera troupe and performed at various places to raise funds to build iron suspension bridges to ease travel along the valleys of Tibet. Moreover, under the fifth Dalai Lama, who was himself a great opera aficionado, Tibetan opera received a huge boost. Since then, Tibetan opera became an intrinsic part of Tibetan culture, Sangay said.

He also drew a stark contrast in the situation inside Tibet under China and in exile. He said that China was employing a concerted strategy to annihilate Tibetan culture in their attempt to transform Tibetans into Chinese and Tibet into China. However, in exile under the guidance of the Dalai Lama, he noted that Tibetan culture had revived from the early days of exile and is flourishing.

He stressed the importance of Tibetan culture such as opera and expressed the Kashag (cabinet of Tibetan government in exile) fervent efforts to retain these ancient Tibetan traditions. As advised by the Dalai Lama, the Kashag of the Central Tibetan Administration consider Tibetan opera as an important component of Tibetan culture that needs to be preserved.

Sangay also spoke briefly about opera cultures in other parts of the world where operas have played crucial roles in the expression of political dissent and dissatisfaction. However, he said that Tibetan opera was unique in the sense that opera was considered sacred in Tibet as it contained holy texts from Buddhist scriptures.

Wangdue Tsering, Director of Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, said 11 troupes from different parts of India and one from Nepal are participating in this year’s festival. Each troupe will present a short excerpt of their performances on the opening day.

Performances will be staged afrom April 21 to 25. A performance of the opera “Gyalsa Bhelsa” by artistes of TIPA will mark the closing of the festival on April 25.