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Shoton: Tibetan opera begins in Dharamsala

          Dharamsala: The annual Tibetan opera festival called Shoton got off to a colourful start on Tuesday. The festival was inaugurated by the exiled Tibetan religious leader the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama, revered by Tibetans as the reincarnation of a long line of Buddhist kings, belongs to the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism and has been living in Dharamsala since 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule. Dharamsala is the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile in India. Hundreds of tourists and Tibetans living in exile in India converged in Dharamsala on Tuesday to take part in the "Shoton" festival. Traditionally, the "Shoton" festival is celebrated on a full moon day to mark the end of long summer retreat of monks and originated at the Drepung Monastery of Lhasa in Tibet around 14th century. The festival took its name from "Sho" or yoghurt served to the monks and nuns practising purification rituals during the time and ate no meat during full moon days. This was also the time when operatic re-enactments of stories from the life of Buddha and his previous births were held. On Tuesday, a large number of people in Dharamsala watched artists from the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) enacting plays, representing the traditional Tibetan theatre. The festival also served as a forum for the Tibetan artists from across India to display their art. "We are celebrating this 10th annual Shoton festival here in exile and we have seven participants from outside Dharamsala and from TIPA we have a total of eight participants," said Kalsang Youdon Dagpo, Director of Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts. Participants said the festival is held every year to keep alive the tradition of "shoton", which is a dying art form in Tibet because of cultural and religious repression by Chinese authorities. "Yes, by this, we are preserving our Tibetan tradition in general. The preservation of the traditions is important for any community in the world. For the Tibetans it is preserving their culture, dances and the costumes also," said Genpo Tashi, a Tibetan artist. The 17th Karmapa Lama, who fled Lhasa and arrived in Dharamsala in January 2000 after an arduous 1,400 km journey through the snowbound Himalayas, was also present on the occasion. The festival showcases Tibetan culture and spreads the teachings of Lord Buddha through operas and theatres. In Tibet, opera troupes perform Lhama, the Tibetan opera based on the lives of famous figures in Tibetan Buddhism to receive the blessings of the Dalai Lama.
- March 24, 2004