Festival Season village #1

This past week (as well as the coming week,) is summer festival season in the local villages. The Tibetans celebrate their local mountain gods with offerings, dances and fireworks. (Usually) one community member is at times possessed by the community's main god and directs the festivities as well as passing blessings and giving instructions to the community for the coming year. In the two pictures above, a main mountain deity possesses the young man dancing through a line of villagers while a rival, minor deity possesses an older man in the other picture.

All of the villages families participate, sending their young and old to dance or make offerings or work behind the scenes. It is a great way to build community and cohesion in the community over time.

The picture above shows some of the girls in traditional dress. The orange beads in their hair are made of coral and are heavy and very expensive. Much of a family's wealth is held in festival attire.
This picture to the left is of many of the villagers dancing together.
This village's festival ran for three days. Char took these pictures and I was filming for many hours. Sometimes the village elders up on the temple veranda would ask me questions or offer me barley alcohol (strong stuff). Mostly they just let me film whatever I wanted while I respectfully tried to stay out of the way.