Shoton FestivalFolk Arts

Why Shoton Is Also Called the “Tibetan Opera Festival”

Because performances of Tibetan opera form one of the central events of the Shoton Festival, the festival is also known as the “Tibetan Opera Festival.”

Tibetan opera is called “Lhamo” in Tibetan, meaning “fairy.” According to tradition, Tibetan opera was first performed by seven sisters, and many of its stories were drawn from mythic narratives in Buddhist scriptures, hence the name.

Tibetan opera originated in the folk songs and dances, narrative singing traditions, religious rites, and ritual arts that developed during the formative period of Tibetan culture. Its history can be traced back as early as the eighth century. By the fifteenth century, the Tibetan architect and cultural figure Thangtong Gyalpo adapted folk singing and dancing, acrobatics, and various popular arts into Tibetan opera, marking the gradual maturation of this ancient theatrical form.

As a highly distinctive genre within China’s ethnic theatrical traditions, Tibetan opera occupies a unique place not only in China but also in the wider world of drama.

In 2009, Tibetan opera, together with the Gesar epic tradition as representatives of Tibet’s intangible cultural heritage, was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Tibetan opera brings together myth, legend, folk song, narrative singing, dance, acrobatics, and various forms of Tibetan folk literature and art with religious ritual, music, and dance. It has therefore been described as a “living fossil” of Tibetan culture.

During the period of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Tibetan opera gradually separated from monastic religious ritual and developed into a theatrical form centered on singing, integrating singing, chanting, dancing, acting, spoken dialogue, and performance skills within a set of basic conventions.

According to historical records, in the mid-seventeenth century the Fifth Dalai Lama established the custom of holding the Shoton Festival in Lhasa each year from the end of the sixth lunar month to the beginning of the seventh, with Tibetan opera troupes from different regions gathering in Lhasa to perform.

From that time onward, Tibetan opera became the cultural heart of the Shoton Festival, and the festival accordingly acquired the alternative name “Tibetan Opera Festival.”

Today, during the annual Shoton Festival, Tibetan opera performances at Norbulingka and Dzongyab Lukhang Park are among the liveliest events. Folk Tibetan opera troupes take turns presenting their finest repertoire at these two venues.

Three Major Traditions and the Eight Great Operas

Tibetan opera encompasses an exceptionally broad theatrical system. Because the regions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau differ in natural conditions, ways of life, cultural traditions, dialects, and pronunciation, Tibetan opera developed numerous artistic genres and schools.

In Tibet, the best-known forms are White Mask Tibetan Opera and Blue Mask Tibetan Opera.

White Mask Tibetan Opera is the oldest form of Tibetan opera, with its embryonic beginnings traceable to the Tubo period. It is distinguished by its unique dance rhythms, graceful singing, archaic costumes, and mysterious plots.

Many later schools of Tibetan opera developed from this tradition, and White Mask Tibetan Opera was included in the second national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2011.

One of its most distinctive features is that many melodies begin with introductory sounds resembling the cries or roars of animals. This arose from the way its vocal melodies were designed according to the fundamental requirements of the seven categories of Tibetan vocal sound.

The classic White Mask Tibetan Opera 《扎西雪巴》 is an indispensable opening performance at the Shoton Festival each year. It is often said that if 《扎西雪巴》 is not performed, no other Tibetan opera can begin.

The work in fact serves as a ceremonial prologue to Tibetan opera performances. At the beginning, performers purify the performance ground, conduct ritual offerings, invoke divine protection, and drive away evil influences. Its origins lie in “Wenbadun,” regarded as one of the earliest forms of Tibetan opera.

White Mask Tibetan Opera was included in the second national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2011.

Blue Mask Tibetan Opera began to take shape in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and flourished in the seventeenth century.

From it developed four major schools: Jomulung, Jungpa, Shangpa, and Jianggar. Among them, the Jomulung school is the most representative Tibetan opera tradition of the Lhasa region, with repertoire including 《卓娃桑姆》, 《苏吉尼玛》, and 《白玛文巴》.

Tradition holds that Tibetan opera once possessed “thirteen great plays.” The works most frequently performed are 《文成公主》, 《曲杰诺桑》, 《朗萨雯蚌》, 《卓娃桑姆》, 《苏吉尼玛》, 《白玛文巴》, 《顿月顿珠》, and 《智美更登》, collectively known as the “Eight Great Tibetan Operas.”

During the Shoton Festival, folk Tibetan opera troupes take turns presenting these classics.

During the 2025 Shoton Festival, Dzongyab Lukhang Park and Norbulingka Park hosted performances by folk Tibetan opera troupes of classic works including 《白玛雯巴》, 《卓娃桑姆》, 《苏吉尼玛》, and 《朗萨雯蚌》.

Onstage, performers dressed in magnificent costumes may stand firmly in place as male and female voices alternate in soaring song, or move and leap across the performance area with the hems of their robes flying through the air.

Below the stage, hundreds of spectators sit directly on the ground, at times deeply absorbed in the unfolding drama and at others applauding and cheering the performers’ remarkable skill.

Artistic Characteristics

A Tibetan opera performance is generally divided into three sections.

The first is “Dun,” consisting mainly of opening songs and dances offered to the deities. The second is “Xiong,” the principal dramatic narrative. The third is known as “Tashi,” meaning the offering of blessings and auspicious wishes.

Tibetan opera was originally an open-air theatrical form. Its accompaniment consisted only of a drum and a cymbal, with no other musical instruments.

Its singing style is high-pitched, powerful, and resonant. Melodies are generally tailored to individual performers, and every sung line is accompanied by supporting voices.

Actors usually do not wear theatrical makeup; instead, masks form the primary means of character presentation.

Tibetan opera integrates mythology, legend, folk songs, narrative singing, dance, acrobatics, and many other forms of Tibetan folk literature and art with religious ritual, music, and dance.

The scripts of Tibetan opera also represent one of the high points of Tibetan literature. They place equal emphasis on musical rhythm and poetic atmosphere, make extensive use of maxims, proverbs, and popular sayings, and even insert fables into dramatic plots, preserving much of the finest language of ancient Tibetan literature.

Throughout its development, Tibetan opera was relatively little affected by outside cultures. Both its content and its performance forms therefore retain many features of their original character, giving the tradition exceptional scholarly value in fields such as the study of theatrical origins and development.

Performance Tradition

Every year, the Shoton Festival brings renowned Tibetan opera troupes from across Tibet together in Lhasa to perform.

These performances are deeply loved by Lhasa residents. Many people travel to the venues specifically to watch traditional Tibetan opera.

Since Tibetan opera performance events were launched in 2012, they have been held successfully for thirteen years, attracting more than ten thousand spectators annually and becoming one of Lhasa’s most influential public cultural programs and cultural calling cards.

Shoton Festival Tibetan opera performances have become a cultural bridge linking tradition with modernity, monastic communities with lay society, and local residents with visitors.

The Jomulung Tibetan Opera Troupe is an important force in Shoton Festival performances.

Losang Tashi, an autonomous-region-level representative inheritor of the nationally recognized intangible cultural heritage tradition of Lhasa Jomulung Tibetan Opera, was invited in 2008 by the Lhasa Doilung Jomulung Tibetan Opera Troupe to oversee rehearsals for its Shoton Festival performance.

The formal production was widely praised by scholars, specialists, and the general public.

Shoton Festival’s “Gesar Moment”

In August 1984, during the Shoton Festival, Lhasa hosted a gathering of Gesar performers from seven provinces and autonomous regions.

More than forty performers attended, including the renowned elderly artist Zhaba and the female artist Yumei.

This was the first large-scale gathering of performers of the 《格萨尔》 epic during the Shoton Festival and marked the formal incorporation of this ancient epic tradition into the festival’s broader landscape of folk arts.

That year, a brightly colored great tent was erected amid the broad woodland of Norbulingka Park.

Word spread that the much-loved Gesar shide—artists who perform the Gesar epic through narrative singing—would give a public performance there. People hurried to tell one another and rushed to witness the event, and before long a crowd had gathered in front of the tent.

The “Zhongkan,” narrative singers who in earlier times had often survived through begging and were regarded as belonging to the lowest social stratum, were now able to perform publicly in the garden of the Dalai Lama—something that would have been unimaginable in the old society.

Then an artist over seventy years old took the stage.

He wore a specially made tall hat sewn from silvery-white brocade. It was four-cornered, with an animal-shaped ear on each side. The front was decorated with patterns, together with a conch shell and a bow and arrow fashioned from metal. The brim was edged with small white shells, several peacock feathers rose from the crown, and blue and white satin ribbons fell around it.

“鲁阿拉拉毛阿拉，鲁塔拉拉毛塔拉……”

A broad, rich baritone poured forth like running water.

At one moment he gestured and narrated fluently; at another he widened his eyes and launched into uninterrupted song.

He was Yuzhu, a herdsman from Qinglong District in Baingoin County, Nagqu, and a performer of the Gesar epic.

This public performance during the 1984 Shoton Festival became a landmark moment in the history of Gesar performance at the festival. It marked the first time folk epic singers took the stage at this great celebration.

From then on, the Gesar epic and Tibetan opera together became the twin jewels of Shoton Festival folk arts.

The World’s Longest Heroic Epic

The epic 《格萨尔王传》, transmitted in song and narration for a thousand years, is the largest in scale and longest in performed length among the world’s heroic epics and has been called the “Homeric Epic of the East.”

Its extraordinarily rich content encompasses mythology, legends, narrative songs, customs, ways of life, and systems of belief, representing one of the highest achievements of ancient Tibetan and Mongolian folk culture and oral narrative art.

In 2009, 《格萨尔王传》 was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Performers of 《格萨尔》 are known in Tibetan as “Zhongken.”

Before beginning their performances, they carry out various rituals, such as burning incense to invite the deities or singing before a mirror. During the narration, they may wear a special performance hat decorated with various bird feathers and accompany themselves with a horn fiddle or a small hand drum.

“Zhong” is the term used in Tibetan regions for storytelling. Gesar zhong is a narrative-singing form in which spoken and sung passages alternate. It includes both prose narration and metrical lyrics and is therefore highly flexible in structure.

The melodic forms used in “Gesar Zhong” include one style performed according to traditional methods, another employing the substitution of identical characters, and a less common approach in which melodies are used more freely.

The performance style also differs by region. In agricultural areas, the rhythm is often regular and lively, with clear and rounded articulation; in pastoral areas, the vocal style tends to be high, bright, and penetrating.

The Elderly Artist Zhaba

The renowned Tibetan narrative singer Zhaba devoted his entire life to the cause of 《格萨尔》.

He died in November 1986. Even in the final hours before his death, he continued tirelessly to perform the Gesar epic.

Although he passed away, he left behind an extraordinarily precious cultural legacy.

During his lifetime, he performed twenty-five sections of 《格萨尔王传》, comprising nearly 600,000 lines of verse and more than six million Chinese characters in transcription.

This is equivalent in scale to twenty-five Homeric epics, fifteen copies of the Indian epic Ramayana, or three copies of the Mahabharata.

It remains the longest and most complete set of performer-transmitted Gesar texts yet recorded, embodying Zhaba’s wisdom and artistic genius and representing one of the most important achievements in modern efforts to preserve the Gesar tradition.

Unlike many other folk artists, performers of 《格萨尔王传》 do not generally claim that their art is transmitted through master and disciple or from father to son.

They believe that the ability to perform the epic cannot truly be taught or learned. Rather, it depends entirely on “destiny,” on divine inspiration, and on possession by the “deity of poetry.”

This belief corresponds closely with the concept of reincarnation found in traditional Tibetan culture.

During the Shoton Festival and Tibetan New Year, Gesar narrative singers also travel to Lhasa to participate in festivities, bringing this living epic directly into the festival setting.

Guozhuang Dance (Gorzho)

Guozhuang dance, known in Tibetan as “Gorzho,” means “circle song and dance.” It is one of the three major forms of Tibetan folk dance and was included in China’s national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006.

Broadly speaking, Tibetan dance can be divided into two main systems: folk song-and-dance and religious dance. More specifically, it may be classified into four broad categories: xie, zhuo, gar, and cham.

Gorzho, commonly known in Chinese as Guozhuang, means circular song and dance. Its movements are strong and vigorous. The lead dancer periodically cries “休休休,” directing the entire group and keeping the dancers in a unified rhythm.

During the Shoton Festival, when people leave their homes to enjoy lingka outings, Guozhuang dance is an indispensable form of folk art.

Tibetan families dress in bright clothing, carry colorful tents and kadian mats on their backs, and bring generous provisions of barley wine, butter tea, pastries, and other foods to spend a joyful day in Norbulingka.

They listen to Tibetan opera, meet relatives and friends, and give themselves fully to the pleasure of the occasion.

During these communal lingka gatherings, the circular song and dance of Guozhuang draws scattered groups of people together. They form a circle and dance as they sing.

This is one of the most direct embodiments of the Tibetan cultural ideals of reunion and sharing.

“Dui” Xie and Dranyen Singing

During Shoton Festival activities, the Jungpa Tibetan Opera Troupe incorporated performances of the lively and passionate folk dance of the “Dui” region into its productions.

These dances were accompanied by the dranyen, a six-stringed lute, and emphasized stepping patterns, percussive foot rhythms, and changes in sound produced by the dancers’ feet.

They became extremely popular among different social groups in Lhasa and later spread more widely.

“Dui” xie is a folk song-and-dance tradition of the Shigatse region characterized by accompaniment on the six-stringed lute.

Its rhythm is lively and its spirit warm and uninhibited, adding rich musical color to Shoton Festival Tibetan opera performances.

The Religious Dance “Cham”

Cham is a religious dance of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries.

It broadly refers to religious dances intended to drive away demons, honor deities, proclaim Buddhist teachings and divine order, explain karmic causality, and enact stories from Buddhist scriptures.

Its earliest form developed from rituals associated with the Yogācāra tradition of Indian Buddhism while absorbing local shamanic dances connected with nature worship, animal-imitation dances, and ritual dances involving sacred implements.

Cham contains no singing during performance.

At the Buddha-unveiling ceremony of the Shoton Festival, the religious dance elements of Cham and the secular performance traditions of Tibetan opera together form a complete picture of the festival’s folk arts.

Tibetan Opera Singing and Music

Tibetan opera singing is high-pitched, powerful, and resonant. Melodies are generally adapted to individual performers, and each sung line is supported by accompanying human voices.

Its performance conventions are highly structured. Each play is generally divided into three parts: “Dun”, the opening songs and dances offered to the deities; “Xiong”, the main dramatic narrative; and “Tashi”, the concluding section of blessing and auspicious wishes.

Tibetan opera was originally an open-air theatrical form and used only one drum and one cymbal as accompaniment, with no other musical instruments.

The contrast between this minimal accompaniment and the soaring vocal style creates a distinctive artistic tension, giving Tibetan opera extraordinary expressive power on the outdoor stages of the Shoton Festival.

Music of the Buddha-Unveiling Ceremony

The Shoton Festival begins with the Buddha-unveiling ceremony at Drepung Monastery.

At exactly 6:00 a.m. on the day of the unveiling, ritual horns sound together from the Tsogchen Assembly Hall at Drepung Monastery as fragrant juniper smoke rises through the air.

In the dim light of dawn, monks open a wooden cabinet with more than twenty doors and together bring out a silk thangka of Shakyamuni Buddha measuring nearly forty meters in length and approximately thirty-seven meters in width.

Led by a ceremonial monastic procession and senior lamas of the monastery, they carry it on their shoulders along the winding pilgrimage path toward the Buddha-unveiling platform on Mount Gephel Utse.

At around 7:30 a.m., an immense crowd packed closely below the platform watches as the enormous thangka is slowly unfurled, gradually revealing itself from bottom to top.

At once, clouds of incense smoke rise, ritual horns thunder, monks and laypeople together chant hymns of praise to Shakyamuni Buddha, and devotees proceed beneath the platform in turn to offer khata ceremonial scarves.

At the same time, folk artists perform traditional Tibetan opera.

Amid the sounding of ritual horns, the people of Lhasa welcome the annual Shoton Festival.

The fragrance of juniper smoke and tsampa, the sound of ritual horns, and the chanting of scriptures mingle together, filling Mount Gephel Utse with a sacred and solemn atmosphere.

The vocal component of the Buddha-unveiling ceremony—chanting music—and its instrumental music are fundamental components of Tibetan Buddhist music and, together with traditional Tibetan opera, possess considerable scholarly value.

Ritual Horns and Scripture Chanting

The ritual horn is the most emblematic sonic symbol of the Shoton Festival’s religious ceremonies.

As dawn lifts the darkness and the sky gradually brightens, at around six in the morning monks sound the ritual horns, their tones reverberating throughout the valley around Drepung Monastery.

Then monastic musicians climb to the top of projecting rocks, raise gleaming golden ritual horns and suona, and play broad, resonant melodies.

Amid the solemn and auspicious sound of Buddhist ritual music, monks standing at the top of the Buddha-unveiling platform at Drepung Monastery slowly draw upward the golden curtain.

Inside the Tsogchen Assembly Hall, low scripture chanting; outside, the prolonged sounding of ritual horns and the simultaneous calls of conch shells—all combine to create the acoustic background of the ceremony.

Tens of thousands of devotees recite the six-syllable mantra. Tibetan Buddhist believers hold that reciting this mantra can transform danger into safety and misfortune into auspiciousness.

Ritual horns, chanting, incense smoke, and khata scarves together create the solemn atmosphere of the Shoton Festival’s opening ceremony.

Scholarly Value of Ritual Music

The Shoton Festival contains a rich range of musical elements, including the vocal and instrumental components of religious music, the singing styles and accompaniment of Tibetan opera Aji Lhamo, and the vocal melodies and accompaniment of song-and-dance music.

Although these three musical categories may appear independent, they in fact share certain symbiotic relationships in their origins, development, and transmission.

It is precisely this interweaving and coexistence of religious music, Tibetan opera music, and song-and-dance music that makes the Shoton Festival a living case study for research into Tibetan ritual music.

Lingka Outings

After the Democratic Reform, the Shoton Festival truly became a festival belonging to the Tibetan people themselves.

During the festival, Lhasa residents dress in bright clothing, carry colorful tents and kadian mats, and bring generous supplies of barley wine, butter tea, pastries, and other foods.

Entire families leave home and spend a full day enjoying themselves at Norbulingka.

They listen to Tibetan opera, meet relatives and friends, and celebrate to their hearts’ content.

During lingka outings, people sing Tibetan folk songs. The melodies of the folk songs intertwine with the vocal lines of Tibetan opera and the solemn resonance of ritual horns, together forming the richly layered soundscape of the Shoton Festival.

During the festival, a folk song is sung:

“饮一杯青稞酒浑身有力量，喝一碗酥油茶做梦都芬芳”

When people sit together on the grass at Norbulingka, with the fragrances of barley wine and butter tea drifting through the air alongside their songs, it forms one of the warmest images of the Shoton Festival—the “festival of eating yogurt.”

Shoton Festival Folk Songs

A number of folk songs associated with the festival circulate during the Shoton Festival.

One sings:

“酸奶飘香的日子，是雪顿节来了。吉祥的日子多快乐，幸福的日子多美好。”

Another says:

“展佛的清晨法号长鸣，罗布林卡歌舞升平。酸奶醇厚如母亲的爱，藏戏唱腔如雪山的风。”

In simple and direct language, these folk songs record the most characteristic scenes of the Shoton Festival: the solemnity of the Buddha unveiling, the excitement of Tibetan opera, the rich taste of yogurt, and the exuberance of song and dance.

In summer on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the rhythms of Tibetan opera drums and the melodies of folk songs mingle within Norbulingka in Lhasa.

People sit on the ground, tasting yogurt while listening to the soaring singing of Tibetan opera.

These days of lingka outings are the Shoton Festival in its most authentic form.

Intangible Cultural Heritage Recognition

The Shoton Festival was included in the first national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2006.

At present, Tibet has eight national-level Tibetan opera heritage items and twelve autonomous-region-level items, as well as twelve national-level representative inheritors of Tibetan opera and eleven autonomous-region-level representative inheritors.

The Shoton Festival itself, whose central cultural expression is Tibetan opera performance, has likewise been included in the national intangible cultural heritage list.

Tibetan opera was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.

White Mask Tibetan Opera was included in the second national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2011.

Tibetan opera and the Gesar epic tradition, as representative expressions of Tibet’s intangible cultural heritage, were both inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Representative Inheritors

The elderly Olo Xunba, a fourth-generation inheritor of White Mask Tibetan Opera, began learning the tradition at the age of ten and did not complete his training until he was twenty-four.

His hair and beard have long since turned gray, yet he has never abandoned his commitment to Tibetan opera.

“现在的传承人还太年轻，需要继续学习，我必须得坚持，直到他成熟起来”

What concerns him most deeply is how to ensure that the Tibetan opera he has loved throughout his life will continue to be passed down.

Losang Tashi is an autonomous-region-level representative inheritor of Lhasa Jomulung Tibetan Opera, a nationally recognized intangible cultural heritage tradition.

In 2008, he took responsibility for rehearsing the Jomulung Tibetan Opera Troupe’s Shoton Festival performance, which received unanimous recognition from experts, scholars, and the wider public.

He frequently recounts the history of Jomulung Tibetan Opera to younger inheritors.

Contemporary Festive Splendor

Far from declining in contemporary society, the Shoton Festival has become increasingly rich and diverse.

During the festival, folk Tibetan opera troupes take turns presenting their finest productions at Norbulingka and Dzongyab Lukhang Park.

During the 2025 Shoton Festival, classic Tibetan opera works including 《白玛雯巴》, 《卓娃桑姆》, 《苏吉尼玛》, and 《朗萨雯蚌》 were performed in Dzongyab Lukhang Park and Norbulingka Park by different folk Tibetan opera troupes.

Since Tibetan opera performance events began in 2012, they have been held successfully for thirteen years and attract more than ten thousand spectators each year.

In 2026, China Media Group and other major media outlets reported on the Shoton Festival, bringing images of Tibetan opera performances to audiences across the country.

After centuries of continuous transmission, the Shoton Festival has repeatedly acquired new forms and meanings. Today, it has developed into a comprehensive cultural celebration combining religious activities, artistic performances, commercial promotion, tourism, and leisure.

The folk-artistic expression of the Tibetan Shoton Festival is fundamentally different from the tradition of “literati poetry” associated with Han Chinese festivals. It is not primarily written in words; it is sung, danced, and performed in the living space of the festival itself. It is not an external act of “watching” and “reflecting,” but an internal act of “speaking” and “celebrating.”

From the legend of the “fairies” in Tibetan opera “Aji Lhamo” to the classic repertoire of the “Eight Great Tibetan Operas”; from the thousand-year-old convention surrounding the White Mask opera 《扎西雪巴》—“如果不唱，其他的藏戏就没办法开唱”—to the distinctive vocal styles of Jomulung, Jungpa, and other schools; from Gesar artist Yuzhu’s unprecedented public appearance in Norbulingka during the 1984 Shoton Festival, described as a “千载难逢头一回,” to the final echoes of the epic still being tirelessly performed by the elderly Zhaba in the hours before his death; from the circular song and dance of “Gorzho” (Guozhuang) to the lively warmth of “Dui” xie; from the solemn thunder of ritual horns and the tide-like chanting during the Buddha unveiling at Drepung Monastery to the joyful mingling of song and laughter during lingka outings in Norbulingka—the folk arts of the Tibetan Shoton Festival take opera and song as twin jewels, and reverence and joy as their core, forming a complete, living, and continuously renewing system of cultural expression.

The Shoton Festival is a festival fragrant with yogurt, but it is also a festival in which Tibetan opera resounds, heroic epics are passed on in song, and music and dance fill the land with celebration. When ritual horns reverberate through the valley of Drepung Monastery, when the soaring voices of Tibetan opera drift above the grasslands of Norbulingka, and when a Gesar bard’s “鲁阿拉拉毛阿拉” pours forth like flowing water—it is the Tibetan people, through their own voices, their own bodies, and their own dances, making their deepest and most enduring declaration of devotion to reverence and joy.

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