Shoton Festival

Shoton (Tibetan: sho = yoghurt, tön = feast) dates to the eleventh century as a religious rite in which laypeople offered yoghurt to monks at the end of their summer retreat; in the seventeenth century the Fifth Dalai Lama added Tibetan opera performances, gradually expanding it into a festival blending religion and folk culture.

The festival's centrepiece is the unfurling at dawn of a vast thangka on the hillside of Drepung Monastery for tens of thousands of devotees to venerate; this is followed by days of Tibetan opera at Norbulingka Park and community yoghurt feasting that gave the festival its name. Modern Shoton now encompasses opera, cultural performances and a beer festival.

Inscribed on China's first national ICH list in 2006, Shoton is one of Tibet's most influential traditional festivals and Lhasa's biggest annual cultural-tourism event, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors and pilgrims each year.

Core events are at Drepung Monastery (thangka-unveiling) and Norbulingka Park (opera and performances), with the whole city celebrating; held annually in the sixth to seventh month of the Tibetan calendar (July–August), lasting about a week.