Universal Prayers Festival

Universal Prayers Festival (Zamling Chisang in Tibetan) falls on the fifteenth day of the fifth month in Tibetan Calendar. The event commemorates Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche)’s subjugation of evil spirits and the founding of the Samye Monastery, which is the first Buddhist Monastery built in Tibet. “Samye” means surprise in Tibetan. For celebration, people go to the monasteries to burn juniper branches and incense powder.

On the Universal Prayer Day, Tibetan people go to the tops of local mountains to burn incense and hang prayer flags. Thus, it’s also called as World Incense Festival, which will fall on July 9 in 2017. This is also the time of the once-a-year display of the famous giant thangkas, scroll paintings, at Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse, Tibet. In Tashilunpo, three huge thangkas with images of the Buddha are displayed for three days on a nine-story wall behind the monastery.

Read more Tibetan Traditional Festival.