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Tarboche - Mount
Kailash, Tibet 23 May 2005
This is the story about one of the most
impressive moments we have ever
witnessed anywhere. "Saga Dawa is an
important Tibetan Buddhist festival,
held each year on the full moon day of
the fourth lunar month of the Tibetan
calendar, to celebrate Sakyamuni 's
enlightenment." , that's what every
guidebook will tell you. But actually
having been there, at that moment it is
more like being part of a magic event,
something that gets a total grip on all
of your senses. So what's going on? Each
year, they replace the Tarboche
flagpole, a huge pole that stands round
of Kailash. People from all over Tibet
gather here that day to attach their
prayer flags they brought from home, to
pray, and to help erect the flagpole.
The flagpole should stand perfectly
upright, or else things are not good for
Tibet. A Lama leads the whole ceremony
from the nearby monastery. It's his job
to make it work 'right first time'.
Day of Saga Dawa : People circulate the
flagpole that is down on the ground now.
They pray and throw 'wind horses'
(little pieces of colored paper with
Buddhist scriptures on them) into the
air. They help to remove last year's
prayer flags and attach new ones. As a
visitor you are almost forced to follow
them as they go around and around, time
after time. Along the sides, on the
slope of the nearby hills, a lot of
people are sitting to watch the
'spectacle' and there are musicians,
which play all the time on their horns
and symbols.
The flagpole is first erected halfway,
using A-structures and ropes. The Lama
continually gives instructions on how to
do it, when to stop and when to go on.
Everyone can help pulling the ropes,
that's the 'non-organized' part of it,
but there are always plenty of people
doing this spontaneously. When they
cannot go further using the
A-structures, they pause for about half
an hour. The Lama sits on the side, and
all the time people come to sit in front
of them, to talk to him, to give him
some gift (mostly some drink!), to ask
him for good fortune. They do not
'queue' however, as soon as someone is
gone, someone else comes out of the
walking crowds - it all seems not
organized, but in fact it's a very
special way of organization!
Then comes the final part, the last step
that has to result in the perfect
upright position of the flagpole. A
steel cable is attached to two trucks,
engines are warmed up, and then, on the
sign of the Lama, and they go backward,
pulling the flagpole. To be able to
control the movement, on both sides of
the flagpole people pull ropes too, to
prevent it doesn't incline to one or the
other direction. Once the trucks start
moving, it all goes very fast, the
flagpole is moving, the A-structures
that were supporting it, fall down, and
only seconds later it is all over. And
then big magic occurs, the flagpole
stands upright, and at that very moment,
thousands of wind horses fly into the
sky... like an explosion of prayers
going to the heavens. You can really
feel a sudden great sense of happiness
surrounding you.
The next moment, people start incubating
the flagpole again, this time to assure
themselves the job is well done, and
that all is well. We join them in some
kind of almost euphoria. Some hours
later the place is empty again, except
for the tents further away belonging to
the people that will spend the night
here, maybe to return the next day, or
to do the Kailash parikrama.
The Saga Dawa festival has been held
here for the last thousand years...
Having been part just once is such a
powerful experience. |
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