DHARAMSHALA, April 6: The 20th Shoton festival of Tibetan opera concluded on Sunday at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts where around two thousand people gathered to watch the final opera performance on the life of Lord Buddha by the artistes of the premiere exile institute dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Tibetan performing arts.
Tibetan Minister of Religion and Culture, Pema Chinjor, attended the concluding day as the chief guest. Also present were Penpa Tsering, Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament, members of the Tibetan cabinet and officials of the Central Tibetan Administration.
The Kashag (cabinet) gave four Lakh Rupees (four hundred thousand) each to the various opera troupes who participated in this year’s opera festival.
The Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama, currently in Japan, graced the opening of the festival on March 27 and watched premiere abstracts from the performances of various opera stories by different opera troupes. Meeting with some 400 members from eleven different opera troupes from India and Nepal, the Tibetan leader said the Tibetan administration must look after the various opera troupes and encourage more such troupes in the community to preserve the ancient performing tradition.
Eleven different opera troupes – Mundgod, Bylakupee, Kathmandu, Kalimpong, Orissa, Bandhara, Mussoorie, Kollegal, Sharkhumbu, Chauntra and TIPA – participated in this edition of Shoton festival which was revived in exile in 1993. Kollegal, Sharkhumbu and Chauntra, which debuted at this Shoton did not perform the full versions of their opera scripts.
One version of the origin of Shoton says that Lord Buddha initiated the practice of monks going on a summer retreat. When Buddhism flourished in Tibet, this practice was believed to have been adopted by many monasteries in Tibet. The monks of Drepung monasteries in Tibet go into summer retreat on the 15th day of the sixth month of the Tibetan calendar. These ‘Disciplinary Monks’ were replaced on the 30th day of the same month. This particular occasion is known as Drepung Shoton.
In Tibet, the festival is held each year from the end of the sixth month to the middle of the seventh month on the Tibetan Lunar calendar.
However, in Tibet; such popular Tibetan festivals, which attract large Tibetan gatherings, are strictly monitored and controlled by Chinese authorities disturbing free celebration of the events. The Communist authorities remain suspicious anticipating possible Tibetan demonstrations against China.
