Ladakh Monastery
About Hemis Festivals :
Is celebrated at Hemis, the biggest Buddhist Monastery in Ladakh to
mark the birth anniversary of Guru Padmasambhava . Splendid masked
dances are performed to the accompaniment of cymbals, drums and long
horns. A colourful fair, displaying some beautiful handicrafts, is the
special highlight of the festival.
Hemis is the biggest and most famous of the monastic festivals,
frequented by tourists and local alike. It falls in late June or the
first half of July, and is dedicated to Padmasambhava. Every 12 years,
the gompa's greatest treasure, a huge thangka - a religious icon painted
or embroidered on cloth - is ritually exhibited
The Hemis Splendor :
According to the Tibetan calendar, the great annual festivals held in
the villages of Ladakh takes place in winter, with the exception of
thseshu held at Hemis in summer. This is one of the most important
events of the valley, its chief feature being the presentation of a mask
dance-drama for two days at a stretch. From the time of Rgyalsras
Rinpoche around the year 1730, the Hemis Festival has been observed year
after year without break and has now become well known the world over.
The festival commemorates the birthday of Guru Padmasambhava, the
celebrated founder of the Lama tradition and the presiding authority of
Tibetan Buddhism. According to the records in Sikkim, Padmasambhava came
northward and convinced the Lamas of Tibet that he was sent to Tibet as
an incarnation of Buddha. The festival both eulogises the great deeds of
Padmasambhava and reiterates the victory over evil for the protection of
Buddha dharma. Guru Padmasambhava is the founder of the Tibetan
tradition and the source of the Terma tradition of the nyingma.
He is popularly known as Rinpoche, the precious teacher. Nyingmas
honour him next to Buddha and refer to him as the second Buddha. It is
believed that guru Padmasambhava descends as a representative incarnate
of all the Buddhas, to bestow grace and improve the conditions of
living. He does so on the 10th day of each month and all of the 10th
dates which come in a year or the most important of the 10th of the
Monkey year in a cycle where the thangka of the guru is exhibited. Each
year, the Hemis Festival is observed. The purpose of this sacred
performance and the dances is to bestow good health, subjugate disease
and conquer evil spirits. Guru Padmasambhava is regarded as one of the
most extraordinary teachers in the history of Buddhist sages, a
possessor of enlightened power. He was a great esoteric practitioner,
said to have been born in a lotus, led an ascetic life and taught
numerous followers about the esoteric approach to enlightenment and had
the distinction of assuming different forms at different places.
