The picture shows the villagers take part in the games at a sports meeting held in Gachang Village, Lhunzhub County of Lhasa. It is a sports meeting full of rural fun, which includes traditional Tibetan tug-of-war, race with sandbag as well as other games.
Tibet received 73 foreign mountaineering expeditions last year.
A total of 626 foreign climbers were welcomed by Tibet, said Zhang Mingxing, director of Tibet Mountaineering Administration.
Mt. Qimolangma, Mt. Qowowuyag and Mt. Shishapangma are the favorite mounts for foreign climbers.
Mountaineering expertise training courses are being held by Tibet Mountaineering Association three days in a row from Mar 18.
The training courses are expected to help professional mountaineering coaches and guides better communicate with foreign climbers.
More than one hundred mountaineering professionals have taken part in the training program which is aimed at promoting mountain climbing in Tibet internationally.
Experts from Tibet Foreign Affairs Office and Tibet Frontier Corps give lectures on etiquette of international and cross-cultural exchanges.
Jan. 15 of the Tibetan calendar, which falls on Mar. 16, 2014, is the “starting ploughing festival”. The production modes are advanced with the times with traditions and custom of Tibetan styled farming culture inherited.
In the early morning of the day, villagers wearing their holiday costumes and best jewelries of Chuphu Village, Chushur County in Lhasa, gathered in the most fertile farmland of the village to start the year’s ploughing,.
On 10:45 of the day, a sacred white stone considered as the “embodiment of dragon’s daughter” was placed in the farmland as part of the sacrificial ritual. Zanba (roasted highland barley flour) and highland barley wine were offered to the stone, with aromatic plants burnt and sacred songs being sung. Tibetan farmers hoped the holy stone could protect crops from hailstones, worms and birds, and bring good weather and harvest in the year.
Mani stone piles can be seen everywhere in Tibet in mountain-passes and on river banks.
Mani stone refers to the stones engraved with the six-syllable prayer word “om mani padme hum”. Tibetans often describe one’s loyal heart as firm as the invariant carvings on stones, which can be traced in the heroic stories of King Gesar where his foot-print and his horse’s foot-print left in places of historical interest are revered by Tibetans.
Mani stones piles can be used as road signs, sacrifice to holy spirits, and tokens of worship and prayer, among which the latter two meanings are still popular in Tibet and Tibetan inhabited areas.
To further protect wetland resources and improve its protection system, the Mansarowar wetland and Midikha wetland have applied to be promoted as national natural reserves from local natural reserves, according to Forestry Department of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
It is the first time to make areas where wild yaks and Tibetan antelopes breed and calve into the key protection areas.
At present, Tibet has established 47 natural reserves, 9 of which are under state–level protection, 14 are under autonomous region protection and 24 are at city and county levels. The protection areas in Tibet have reached 413,700 kilometers, accounting for 33.9 percent of the total land area and ranking the first in China.
Tibetan Buddhist monks and believers attend the Butter Sculpture Festival in Jampaling Monastery, Chamdo, east Tibet, on March 16. The festival is hailed on Jan. 15th of the Tibetan calendar every year, to commemorate Sakyamuni’s triumph over other Buddhism sects on sutra debating. Jampaling Monastery is the biggest Monastery of Gelug sect of the Tibetan Buddhism in eastern Tibet. Butter sculptures are colored monuments built of yak butter mixed with fat and wax commemorating various traditional stories and fables.
Inside the Jampaling Monastery in Chamdo Town of Chamdo Prefecture of Tibet Autonomous Region, monks are enjoying sutra debates over Buddhist scriptures on March 13.
The Jampaling Monastery is under the administration of the Gelug Sect of the Tibetan Buddhism. The monastery was founded during the Ming Dynasty (1368－1644 A.D.) after founder Tsongkapa’s religious reform in Tibet.
The sutra debate is a special religious practice for monks to better understand the Buddhist scriptures, which usually takes place in a shady clearing on the courtyard inside a Buddhist monastery.
Yanjing Catholic Church is in Naxi Ethnic Group Township of Markam County under Chamdo Prefecture, southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. Established in 1865, the Yanjing (literally “salt well”) Catholic Church is the only catholic church still in use in the region. Its architecture features a Tibetan exterior design combined with a Gothic one in the interior. The church has one priest and two sisters, and holds masses on Christmas and Easter besides weekly services in the Tibetan language for its 559 Catholic practitioners.
A day before Mar.8, International Women’s Day, hundreds of Tibetan women gathered in a Tibetan courtyard in Dagar Village, Quxu County of Lhasa to celebrate their own festival.
“It’s really impossible and unimaginable in the past,” said Gornthan, a 77-year-old grandma who was shooting a video under her daughter’s guidance.
“In the old days, only the lords had parties or gatherings, while ordinary women had no status at all, not to mention watching Gorchom circle dance and playing games like this,” said Gornthan.
In old Tibet, it was stipulated that women belonged to “the lowest level of people”, whose life was priced as low as a straw rope.
In recent years, Tibetan women have increasing consciousness in economy and independence, who all wish to realize their self-value with the constantly improved social status.
Zhang Ziwei, 36 years old, started on his bicycle adventure on Mar.5 from northern China’s Baoding of Hebei Province, heading for Tibet in southwestern China.
With a big backpack and a camera, he set off in the early morning with a group of his relatives and friends seeing him off.
According to his plan, he will travel almost 6,000 kilometers westwards.
Zhang Ziwei, once a champion of Graeco-Roman wresting, now runs a company. He threw himself in the gym before his departure to make sure he is strong enough to conquer all the difficulties he may meet on the road.
Besides, he also collected a pile of materials and learned from some experienced cyclists who succeeded in traveling to Tibet.
To make his journey significant, Zhang will record with his camera and notebook the people who need help and update it to the Internet to vow the public attention.
Zhang will also introduce the beautiful scenery of his hometown to people he will meet.
His 64-year-old mother told the reporter she supported his son’s adventure and hoped he could come back safe.
Knowing his adventure, many people provided him some necessities like sleeping bag to make his journey smoother.