Thursday, 7th April: On the second day of Shoton Festival, this morning at Tsuglagkhang, His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave a special audience to the eight participating troupes of the 25th Shoton festival in Dharamshala, as well as members of the Middle Way Approach Conference. Tibetan opera is one of Tibet’s ten sciences. Along with poetry, composition, and other minor sciences, it is classified as one of the five minor sciences.
On Wednesday, TIPA officially initiated its 25th Tibetan Shoton Festival which celebrates Tibetan Opera from April 6 to 13 here at Dharamshala. Shoton translates to “yogurt banquet” in Tibetan. Traditionally during the festival, Tibetan artists perform traditional operas throughout the event, and prominent monasteries showcase enormous Thangkas – Buddha paintings.
In his address to the crowd, His Holiness expressed his happiness at the start of the Shoton Festival, saying that it reminds him of Tibet, where it is celebrated with great zeal and enthusiasm. The ShoDun Festival commonly known as the Yogurt Festival or Banquet is historically held at Norbulingka in Lhasa. Since China’s occupation of Tibet, Tibetans in exile celebrate the festival at TIPA in Dharamshala.
His Holiness emphasized the importance of Tibetan opera as an integral element of Tibetan culture, saying that Tibetans in exile must continue to preserve and maintain it. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama advised that we Tibetan cannot expel the Chinese from our country through violence, however, by adopting a middle-ground approach to policy, we can learn to cohabit peacefully while maintaining our individual identities.
His Holiness continued that Tibetan Buddhism and its scientific method, which relies on logic and reasoning via study, has sparked significant curiosity among Chinese people today, even scientists from all around the world are testing the viability of science-Buddhism connections.
His Holiness also emphasized that we owe King Songtsen Gampo a great debt of gratitude for bringing Buddhism and the Tibetan script, which we now proudly promote.
Finally, His Holiness assured the crowd that he would live for over 100 years. Following His Holiness’s discourse, each opera troupe’s representative presented His Holiness with a piece of Namthar (biographical anecdotes).
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