Witnessing the buddha's unveiling
By Zhao Xu | China Daily | Updated: 2017-04-03 07:19
The Shoton Festival, Tibet's largest cultural gala, opens with a huge image of the founder of Buddhism unfurled on a hillside. Zhao Xu reports.
It was a dark and rainy morning in the Tibet autonomous region, but my traveling companion and I could not sleep. The clock had not yet struck 4 am as we clambered out of our beds and prepared to make our way to the Shoton Festival, one of the region's largest annual celebrations.
A friend had advised us to get an early start if we wanted to secure a spot for the "sunning of the Buddha" ceremony, which marks the start of the festival at the Drepung Monastery on the outskirts of the regional capital, Lhasa.
Photo