Religion and Culture
MONLAM CHENMO
The Monlam Chenmo, also known as The Great Prayer Festival, is the most important Tibetan Buddhist celebration of the year and begins on the 4th da...
Read more
Animals and Surroundings
YEAR OF THE WATER RABBIT
The Lunar New Year is marked by the first day of the lunar year and is the most celebrated festival on the Tibetan Plateau. It is a symbol of new b...
Read more
Religion and Culture
TORKYA CEREMONY
Each year, across the Tibetan Plateau, monks perform the ‘Torkya’ or Ritual Cake Throwing Ceremony, a ritual meant to cleanse the air of any malevo...
Read more
Religion and Culture
GANDEN NAMCHOE
Each year on a winter night, the outlines of a multitude of villages and nomad settlements across the Tibetan Plateau emerge from obscurity, illumi...
Read more
Religion and Culture
WINTER CHAM
Every year around December, when the cold has settled in and the new year is close, the monastery in Garnying, a few kilometers from Ritoma, holds ...
Read more
Animals and Surroundings
CHOEKHOR DAY
As autumn rolls in with yellowing and darkening skies, Ritoma’s pastoralists prepare for winter. Yak and sheep, which had been grazing at higher al...
Read more
People
THE FOUR FRIENDS
To celebrate this month’s full moon, we would like to offer a blessing to our community of friends. The Four Friends blessing is hand-painted in co...
Read more
Religion and Culture
YARNEY ~ INTERVIEW WITH A MONK
Yarney is a six week retreat period that monks practice in the summer, beginning over two thousand years ago at the time of Buddha Sakyamuni. Dakpa...
Read more
Religion and Culture
MONKS MONSOON RETREAT
Each year, monks in Labrang and many other monasteries on the Tibetan Plateau hold a six week retreat in the summer. Its origins are in the Monsoon...
Read more
Religion and Culture
THE CIRCLE
On the 18 th of June, Ritoma’s pastoralists brought their yak and sheep to Chakka, the highest and furthest point of grassland in their yearly migr...
Read more
Animals and Surroundings
SOGWA - INTERVIEW WITH A NOMAD COUPLE
Each year, nomads move their herds to higher pastures for winter grazing in a period called Sogwa by the nomads of Ritoma. Moving towards new groun...
Read more