On July 23rd, the Ya-dun Festival commenced in Tongren County (Rebgong) of Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China’s Qinghai Province, where the beautiful scenery can be seen everywhere and people can experience the unique Tibetan culture, including Tibetan food, Tibetan clothing, Tibetan dances, etc.
The Ya-dun Festival is a traditional festival in Rebgong, which is held from July 23 to September 15, 2018. The main contents include Tibetan operas, Tangka painting, and gala parties, as well as wonderful horsemanship display. Ya-dun is Tibetan language and it means celebrating summer. Summer is the best season to visit Rebgong. Everyone will go out for a picnic, enjoy the beautiful scenery of green grass and streams, as well as tasty food and play games. And young men will have sports competitions such as wrestling, riding, and archery.
Today, the Ya-dun Festival focuses on Tibetan operas, so it also called Tibetan drama festival. The festival kicked off with the opening ceremony of Tibetan operas. Actors and actresses from 6 domestic opera troupes performed their best operas, while partying groups gathered on the grass, feasted each other with their own highland barley wine, buttered tea, and home-made Tibetan desserts. They enjoyed the operas, swaying their prayer wheels or twisting Buddha beads. Nowadays, the Ya-dun Festival has become the most influential comprehensive celebration activity in Rebgong. It is also a grand meeting for commodity exchanges.
According to the Publicity Department of Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in recent years, the local government strengthened the protection of the ecological environment, and also promoted the development of tourism and cultural industry. To date, Huangnan has established the Regong Cultural and Ecological Reserve. It has also established cultural industry areas for tangka, clay sculpture, embossed embroidery, stone carving, Tibetan embroidery, and ethnic clothing.
Source: The Publicity Department of Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
