Saga Dawa Festival

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Saga Dawa Festival enshrines the birth, enlightenment and death of Lord Buddha (Tibetan Buddhism). In Tibetan Calendar, 15th day of 4th lunar month is celebrating the full moon Saga Dawa Festival in Tibet. The main goal of the festival is to pray for the long life of the holy Gurus of all traditions and for spreading of Buddha’s teaching. The festival mostly starts in May and June.

Saga Dawa Festival is generally celebrating from 1st till 15th of fourth lunar month of Tibetan calendar but the people also consider to practice Puja, ritual ceremony for the whole month of fourth lunar calendar. Tibetans are considering the Saga Dawa festival as the most auspicious and precious months where ones can achieve good merit or the merit that achieve during this special festival can multiple the result that’s why Tibetans practice more prayers, do more pilgrimages and walk around the temples or monasteries or sacred mountains and lakes.

During this special occation, Tibetan people stop eating meat and many people save lots of animals ‘lives from butcher by paying a lot of money.  

The festival is very important for Buddhist as well as for Hindus that’s why we can see lots of Indian pilgrims travelling to mount Kailash during May and June. Many Tibetan Pilgrims do circumambulation around the holy sites like Jokhang Temple, Potala Palace which is Tsekor, Lingkor and Kailash Kora.

Mount Kailash is the most propitious or auspicious place where the full moon festival is celebrating and the giant prayer flag pole in Darpoche near Mount Kailash is replacing with new prayer flags every year during this special occasion of full moon festival.

Tibetans believe to raise or replace a new prayer flag can bring a lot of luck and can wish to flourish Buddhism so during this month, Tibetan people from different regions gather here in Darpoche for the full moon Saga Dawa festival and do Kailash Kora in order to get a great merit for all the sentient beings.

WHAT KIND OF ACTIVITY TAKES PLACE DURING SAGA DAWA FESTIVAL IN KAILASH

Though Saga Dawa Festival is celebrating all over Tibet but the largest Festival is celebrating in mount Kailash every year. In Darpoche, there is a prayer flag pole which is about 25 meters height covered with different colors of prayer flags printed with different kinds of Mantra on the prayer flags.

Every year, the old prayer flags are removed and new prayer flags are displaced around the pole during Saga Dawa Festival. On 15th Day of 4th Lunar month which is the full moon.

In the morning, the lamas or monks do their prayers around flagpole and get ready to erect upright the flagpole. Once the pole is erected upright, people starts to throw paper printed wind horse prayers in the air and do kora around the new upright prayer flag pole and pray for the peace of the world.

Tibetans believe that one kora around the Mt. Kailash during Saga Dawa festival equals to twelve kora around the holy prayer flagpole. People who have less time, they do Kora around the prayer flagpole instead of Kailash Kora which will take 3 days of trekking for tourist where most of Tibetan can finish within a day. The total distance of Mount Kailash is around 52km.

Thousands of tourists from different places and a lot of pilgrims from India gather at the holy Mt. Kailsh to do Kora or circumambulate every year. You can see lots of Tibetans doing prostration around the holy mount Kailash which is taking a month to complete one circuit around Mt. Kailash.

WHEN TO GO FOR SAGA DAWA FESTIVAL?

Mostly, the Saga Dawa Festival falls on May and ends in June according to the western calendar. In 2020, the festival starts on 5th June which is the full moon 15th day of 4th lunar month and the full moon of Saga Dawa festival around Kailash for 2021 is 26th May 2021.

Tibet Shambhala Adventure arranges our best Kailash Saga Dawa festival group tour and we guarantee you the trip service quality and get all the hotel and guest house bookings during this busy Kailash Saga Dawa Festival. You can join our Kailash group tour or private tour to enjoy the Saga Dawa Festival ceremony…..

HOW TO GET TO Mt. KAILASH FOR SAGA DAWA FESTIVAL?

You can book Kailash Saga Dawa festival group tour in around month advance of 15 days in advance through expert and experienced local Tibetan travel agent like Tibet Shambhala Adventure through which you can get Tibet travel permits and Mount Kailash special permits, comfortable private vehicle, experienced and knowledgeable Tibetan tour guide and all the guest houses or hotels on the way have been booked in advance.

You can start your Mount Kailash tour from Lhasa as well as can do the overland tour like starting the trip from Lhasa and ends the tour from Kyirong Border or Hilsa Border. With Tibet Shambhala Adventure, you can choose to have different Kailash tours for example Kailash group tour and Kailash private tour, with or without Everest Base Camp etc… Which you will need 12-15 days.

 If you choose to have the tour which starts from Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet Autonomous Region, then you will get to visit the holiest Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, Sera and Drepung Monastery which will take 2 days in Lhasa itself as well as you will acclimatize to the high altitude sickness.

Once you leave Lhasa, you will reach the sacred mountains, religious monasteries, popular sights and attractions and so on……… The highlight of Mount Kailash Saga Daw Festival tour is to visit all the highlights of Tibetan cultural parts including the Potala Palace, Jokang temple, in Lhasa and slowly driving to Mount Kailash through the western part of Tibet including Gyantse and Shigtase.

Passing by lots of beautiful natural landscapes, lakes and snow capped mountains, finally reach Mount Kailash and Mansarovar lake. Doing three days Mount Kailash Kora is the most important part of this Kaialsh Saga Dawa festival.

It is not only one of the most challenging Tibet treks but also a very spiritual and mysterious adventure treks in the world. During your Kailash Kora, you will be overwhelmed when you see many Tibetans prostrating around Mt. Kailash.

If you did not book all those necessary items before your trip to Mount Kailash, especially during Saga Dawa festival, you will not get the rooms on the spot since there are lots of Indians and tourists as well as Tibetans during Saga Dawa festival.

With Kailash tour, you can also choose to visit Manasarover Lake which is good and holy place to visit.

Lake Manasarover is the highest freshwater in the world with the elevation of 4590m. During Saga Dawa, you can see many Tibetans and Hindus doing Kora around the Lake Manasarover as well as many Indians doing Puja or Prayer besides the holy lake Manasarover.

Indians believe that by taking a bath in the fresh water of the lake Mansarovar can wash your all sins.

Saga Dawa Festival is the longest and the most important religious festivals in Tibet as well as for Tibetans, it is the best and most precious time to do prayers from the whole year.

For whole month during Saga Dawa, apart from praying and doing kora, most of Tibetans do pilgrims to the different religious sites and monasteries, saves and free life of animals, giving money to beggars and do as much as good deeds throughout the month.

Since the positive and negative deeds can multiple on specific month and pray for every sentient being on the earth. For Tibetans, they strongly believe that no one should miss this chance to do good deeds and eliminate the bad deeds or sins that they did from time to time.

And for tourists, it is the life time opportunity to witness such an auspicious ceremony held in every parts of Tibet including the holy Mt. Kailash area. Tourists can see lots of religious activities, ritual ceremony in all the monasteries in Tibet.

Thousands of people walking around temple, palaces , monasteries, or sacred mountains or lakes in order to gain great merit for all sentient beings so the tourists can get more authentic experience during Saga Dawa festival. To get a lifetime opportunity of visiting Mt. Kailash during Saga Dawa Festival, You can contact our tour consultants for Mount kailash Saga Dawa group tour and they will take care of everything according to your wishes.

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