Off the wire
• China approves 8 new IPO applications  • China's aircraft carrier formation holds training, tests  • Chinese forex market turnover hits 15.9 trln yuan in November  • Locked-up shares worth 171 bln yuan eligible for trade  • Roundup: Peru's new president propels economy forward in 2016  • 1st LD: Over 100,000 displaced, airport closed as flood hits C. Indonesia  • Xinhua Insight: Chinese film market matures as growth slows in 2016  • Roundup: Bolivia wraps up tough economic year, expects better in 2017  • Urgent: Over 100,000 displaced as floods hits central Indonesia  • 29 wounded in Mexican fireworks-market blast released from hospital  
You are here: 　 Home

Tibetans celebrate butter lamp festival

Xinhua, December 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

Tibetans lit butter lamps and prayed through the night in an annual festival commemorating Tsong Khapa, a master of Tibetan Buddhism.

At 4 p.m. on Friday, monks gathered for prayers at the Jokhang Temple in the heart of Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

Thousands of pilgrims and believers gathered around the temple to join the prayers.

More than 8,000 butter lamps were lit on top of the temple building, in prayer halls and in monks' residences.

"Ganden Atsok" is celebrated on the 25th day of the tenth month according to the Tibetan calendar, when Tsong Khapa, the founder of the Gelupga, the "yellow sect" of Tibetan Buddhism, passed away in 1419.

Monks chanted sutras in his praise. Believers prayed for happiness and good health.

Yangdron, a Lhasa resident, lit 108 lamps at her home. "I started to melt the butter two days before the festival. It is an important day," she said.

On Friday, similar ceremonies were held in monasteries at Sera and Zhaibung, also in Lhasa. Endi