Leh Festivals

Leh muisic festival takes place during the month of September 1-15 each year in Leh and villages. The opening ceremony takes place in Leh city on large scale with the demonstration of various cultural troupes from different part of Ladakh. The program includes Archery, Polo, and Mask Dances from the monasteries, traditional dances by cultural troupes from Villages.

Losar festival is celebrated as the New Year by the people of Buddhists in Leh. This leh festival is celebrated with lot of keenness and dedication. It includes dancing, singing, rejoicing and several other fun-filled activities. People visit each other and come out of their torches with torches of wood. Losar leh festivals were highly developed by two days as Jamiang Namgyal determined to invade Skardu before the new year. Since then, Losar festival is famous on the last two days of the 10th Bodhi month, which coincide with December of the Christian calender.

Tampe Chonga is one of known leh festivals which is celebrated on 15th day of the first Bodhi month. It is organized to mark the entry of Budhha into the womb of his mother. Prayer and worship are presented at home and in gompas or monastery and numerous people observe Ashtashila eight fold discipline prearranged for monks. This is the 15th day of Buddha monk.

Jipe Chonga festivals is celebrated day during the 4th Bodhi month. It is the same promising day when Buddha is believed to have taken physical birth. On this day, people usually fast. Homes and gompas of the people of Leh are decorated with lights and special prayers are held. The people fast on the Jipe Chonga day. Homes and gompas are illuminated and individual prayers are conducted.

Buddha Purnima is one of the major festivals of Leh where devotees in thousands carrying out the statue of Bhagwan Buddha and passes through the well decorated markets of the town. Monks from different monasteries, domestic as well as the foreign tourists, took part in this promising event. Buddhism is one of the the largest part of ancient and highly thoughtful Indian ethnicity. All these teachings and the inner realization of them make up Buddhism. This leh festivals is held in Leh Ladakh of Jammu and Kashmir.

Sindhu Darshan Festival is a festival of india which is organized every year in 14th to 16th month of June. It is organized at Leh, in Ladakh District of Jammu & Kashmir. It is celebrated for three days. This leh festivals were firstly held in the month of October, 1997 and continues to be held every year since then,attracting large number of foreign as well domestic tourist. As the name suggests, Sindhu Darshan Festival, which is a festivity of River Sindhu, and recognized as the Indus. The main reason behind the celebration of Sindhu Darshan Festival is to support the Indus River as an icon of the collective concord and unity of India.

The festival of Padmasambhava –During 10th day of the Tibetan lunar month is celebrated as the birthday of Guru Rimpoche who were the founder of Tibetan Buddhism. Lamas perform masked dances and sacred plays.Hemis Gompa celebrates this event in the form of two day festival. Its resident Lamas perform sacred masked dances leading to the destruction of the sacrificial offerings. Hemis tsechu festival is a good occasion for all the villagers and families to get together and socialize and also a good chance for travelers to interrelate with the local people. We will see that the local people dressed up in their optimum customary clothing, with the men wear cummerbunds and the women in bright colourful headgear with jewellery.