Sichuan-Tibet-Gansu Self-driving Tour Part 5
When you travel to Tibet, you usually have to come to Damxung, because there is the most beautiful Tianhu Lake in Tibet - Namtso, and Damxung's horse racing festival, but it is a coincidence to watch horse racing. We are fortunate to have visited Tianhu Namtso Mucuo watched the Dangxiong Jockey Club again.
Damxung, which means "selected pasture" in Tibetan, belongs to Pure Animal Husbandry County, Lhasa City, Tibet. It is located in the central part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, at the junction of southern Tibet and northern Tibet, 170 kilometers away from Lhasa City. Damxung has complex landform types. The famous Nyainqentanglha Mountains cross the whole area along the northwest of the county. The Damxung Basin is above 4,200 meters above sea level. On the northern high plain, there is the most famous and largest lake in Tibet - Namtso.
Namtso means Tianhu Lake in Tibetan. Located in Damxung County to the north of Lhasa, it is one of the three holy lakes in Tibetan areas (the other two are Manasarovar and Yamdrok). Namtso has a vast area of 1,920 square kilometers and an altitude of 4,718 meters. It is the second largest saltwater lake in my country except Qinghai Lake.
Coming out of Dangxiong County, passing through the Nagenla Mountain Pass at an altitude of 5,190 meters, you can see the blue water from a distance. There are two huge stones standing side by side on the left and one right by the lake. They are the welcome stones of Namtso, also known as the husband and wife stones. It is said that they are the door gods of Namtso. According to legend, Namtso is the goddess in charge of the wealth of the grasslands in northern Tibet. If traders want to go out to do business, they must first come here to pray for the blessing of the goddess to ensure a prosperous business. Therefore, this stone is also called the God of Wealth Stone.
When you stand by the lake of Namtso and look at the blue sky, white clouds, snow-capped mountains, and clear water, you will feel refreshed, because Namtso is like a princess with a beautiful face, sleeping peacefully among the mountains, presenting to the world another beauty. Like a bright sapphire, it turns into blue and descends into the world, as if it wants to cleanse people's eyes and soul. Its eyes are filled with the purest scenery, and its heart is filled with the purest respect and love. In short, it shocked me I was speechless, for a moment, there was only surprise, shock, excitement, excitement, praise, and reverence.
There are 18 large and small islands in Namtso Lake, the largest five of which are considered to be the symbols of the five Buddhas in Buddhism. There are 5 peninsulas protruding into the water by the lake, with different shapes. There are four temples built on the southeast, northwest and four sides of the lake, which symbolize anger, anger, power and power in Buddhism. Among them, the Tashiduoboche Temple in the east is located on the largest Tashi Peninsula by the lake. It is still full of incense and is a sacred place for local believers and pilgrims.
Namtso means Tengger Sea in Mongolian. According to legend, it is the dojo of Shengle Vajra, the deity of Tantric Buddhism, and is a famous holy place of Tibetan Buddhism. Every year in the Year of the Goat, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Dharma protectors will set up altars in Namtso to hold a Dharma meeting. If believers go to worship at this time, going to the lake to chant scriptures once is better than going to the lake to chant scriptures once, which is better than going to the lake to chant scriptures 100,000 times at ordinary times. Therefore, in the Year of the Goat, monks and lay believers will go to Zhuanhu Lake even if they travel long distances. Especially during the Saga Dawa Festival on April 15th in the Tibetan calendar every year, there are the most monks and lay believers who come to Namtso to turn around the lake.
Namtso is a holy lake and a heavenly lake. It has a very high status in the minds of Tibetans. The scenery is really beautiful. However, due to our limited time, we have to rush back to Damxiong to watch the horse race. We can only stay for a short time regrettably. Time, rush to Dangxiong Racecourse.
The "Dangjiren" Horse Racing Festival in Damxung County, Tibet is an annual grand gathering of local herdsmen. The event has a history of more than 300 years. It is reported that in the 17th century A.D., Gushi Khan, the leader of the Mongolian Heshuote tribe, led his troops into Tibet, and selected the grasslands in the northwest of Lhasa to herd military horses. He held a cavalry review every year. The "Dangjiren" horse racing festival in Damxung County is the cavalry review. Lineage of activities. In Tibetan folk festivals, horse racing often appears in festivals in the form of themes, and, more importantly, Tibetan people have created a unique horse racing culture based on their strong feelings for horses.
The Tibetan Horse Racing Festival is almost indispensable among all Tibetan festivals passed down by the people, and this event has a long history. From ancient times to the present, horses have been closely linked with the material pursuits and spiritual aspirations of the Tibetan people. Tibetan people have strong and mellow feelings for horses. Horses are the closest companions of Tibetan people in daily life, and horses are the life in the hearts of herdsmen.
People entertain themselves physically and mentally through the Jockey Club, celebrate the harvest, show the bravery and bravery of young people, and worship the gods of the earth and the snow mountain at the same time. Among them, Damxiong and Nagqu are the most lively and have the longest history. At the same time, the Horse Racing Festival is also a season of love, and the euphemistic Han people are accustomed to regard it as "romantic". Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that the herdsmen value the Horse Racing Festival more than the Tibetan New Year. Before the horse racing festival, herdsmen from all over the townships with a radius of hundreds of kilometers brought tents, dressed in gorgeous national costumes, and wore their most flamboyant jewelry, singing all the way in the grassland like a sea of flowers.
If you win the championship at the horse racing festival, you can often get a horse or the equivalent of a horse. Of course, he is more honored, and the auspicious hada presented by people will drown him and his horses. People from the same tribe or ranch will lift him up and lead the winning horse to cheer and parade in the crowd of festivals. And the last one will also get a "prize", and people hang a string of horse dung around his neck, ridiculing him as a "horse dung picker".
This is the beautiful Namtso, and this is the story of Dangxiong's horse racing. When the night is quiet, I will often think of her and miss her...