Autumn Festivals
( 2005-10-27 )

Dates: It starts on the sixth of the seventh Tibetan month and last to the 12th day.
Place: Tibet
Activities:

The Bathing Festival lasts for a week, hence also called Bathing Week, during which Tibetans, both old and young, men and women, from towns or the countryside or pastoral areas, go to rivers and take a holy bathes. They bring food and set up tents along rivers and bathe themselves in the starlight. Holy bathing is considered able to heal disease and to rid misfortune.

 Harvest Festival

Dates: It is celebrated at the end of the seventh Tibetan month just before farmers reap crops.
Place: Lhasa, Gyantse and Shannan in Tibet
Activities:

The Harvest Festival is commonly known as "Onkor Festival." "Onkor" is the transliteration of the Tibetan word that means "looking around the fields." It is a holiday for Tibetan farmers, who sing and dance, beat drums and gongs and walk around the fields, looking forward to their harvest. It is celebrated when crops are ripe and lasts three to five days. According to the farming needs, specific dates for the festival vary according to sites and conditions. The festival usually occurs in September on the Gregorian calendar.

 Fairy Maiden Festival

Dates: It falls on October 15 of Tibetan calendar.
Place: Tibet
Activities:

The Fairy Maiden Festival is called "Paile Retoi" in Tibetan, a special say for Tibetan women. Every October 15 on the Tibetan calendar, Tibetans, especially women, gather in Lhasa around the Jokhang Temple to pray for happy marriages and true love.

The lamas in Lhasa carry the statue of a maiden to the Jokhang Temple to give her the annual chance to see across the Lhasa River to see her true lover on the other side.