Chapter 10: Festivals

Well, the whole family gets together, grandparents, grandchildren etc. They take a packed lunch and have a picnic: rice, spiced meat and a jerry can of local wine or butter milk. So the gesture of sitting together, inviting friends to join, watching the festival, wearing your best clothes—this kind of culture keeps the community together. Also, it is an opportunity for the younger generation to learn about our culture and to interact with people of other generations. It is a harmonizing role for the community.

Yes, I would say the festivals are. Some festivals are Buddhist; some are pre-Buddhist, Bon, celebrations. Usually the activities are very programmed. In the village where I come from, we had a Bon festival and everyone used to join in, often from the night before. The youths get together and go from house to house; they sing praise and receive drinks and food in re-turn. It takes all night and they get quite high from all the alcohol. They would actually wake up people with their songs. People take a bag to receive the food—puffed rice mixed with sesame seeds. As children we would say, well this is a relative’s house, they will give us lots. We used to enjoy going around. By morning we had to have visited every house [there were 40]. Then we would take our food home and meet together for picnicking. The Bon priest would invoke the deity. People would take part in different ways—they would dance and make devotional prostrations. In the evening, they would dismantle the altar and gather again for eating and drinking. That is one festival. But now fewer people take part.