Bathing Festival

Bathing Festival starts on the 6th day of the 7th Tibetan month and lasts a week, when Venus appears in the sky. Tibetans bring food and set up tents along rivers and bathe themselves in star light. The holy bath is considered to be able to heal all diseases and get rid of misfortune.

There is a beautiful legend story about this festival. Long time ago, in one autumn, a bad pestilence took place in Tibet plateau and killed a lot of people. In oder to show the mercy of god, Kwan-yin Buddha sent seven fairies with seven jars of holly water. The water was poured into every river in Tibet. Every Tibetan had a same dream on that night: A pale and thin Tibetan girl with a lot of wounds jumped into one river and after she came out, she became a flawless beauty. And since then, Tibetans follow the dream to shower in the rivers to get rid of the pestilence and illness. Year after year, the Bathing Festival was formed and passed till today.