Hemis festival 2010, Ladakh

The Hemis Festival is held every year in the biggest Buddhist monastery of Ladakh.

Hemisfestival 2010 dates 20-Jun-2010, End Date : 28-Jun-2010HemisFestival is celebrated on the tenth day of lunar month in the Tibetan calendar. The festival is celebrated in the

commemoration of the birth anniversary of The founder of Tibetan Buddhism, Guru Padmasambhava. During the festival, the Lamas gather around the central flagpole in the courtyard of the monastery and perform mask dances and sacred plays. Marking the victory of good over the evil, monks perform the sacred mask dances. The colourful 2 day pageant, local people are seen dressed up in their finest traditional garb for the occasion. The head lama presides over the function. The festival takes an auspicious turn every twelve years in the Tibetan Year of the Monkey, when the two-storey high ‘Thanka’ depicting Padmasambhava is displayed. This famous ‘Thanka’, richly embroidered with pearls and semi-precious stones.