China’sTibetis a minority autonomous region. The religious consciousness and activities have important position in the daily life of the Tibetans, and they penetrate into their basic necessities of life, the birth, old age, illness, death and other aspects. Therefore, there are many religious activities inTibet. The most famous activity is the Lhasa Grand Prayer Ceremony, one of the four biggest Buddhist activities inTibet. The Lhasa Prayer Ceremony is held annually inLhasagrandly.
Lhasa Prayer Ceremony is one of the Buddhist ceremonies created by the grandmaster Tsongkhapa of the Tibetan Buddhism. In 1408, Tsongkhapa, 52 years old then, who lived in the Sera Monastery, deemed that the Figure of Sakyamuni atLhasawas the same as that of the real Buddha. In order to greatly propagate Buddhism, he made a promise and established the Lhasa Grand Prayer Ceremony. He then made a fine gold coronet, silver alms bowl and silverManzha(one of the Buddhist utensils used to offer sacrifice to Buddha) for the Sakyamuni Buddha. The gold coronet was inlaid with many jewels and engraved with the Five Figures of Buddha. In addition, he also respectively offered a silver coronet to the Sakyamuni’s warrior attendant and the eleven-side Kwan-yin located at theRamocheTemple, and made very ceremonious offerings to the Buddha figures of every worship hall. The formal Grand Prayer Ceremony of Chunga Choepa was held on the 1stto 15thof the first month on lunar calendar in 1409.
Activities during the ceremony include vegetarian lunch after morning meeting, sutras chanting, Buddhism converting, scripture explaining and many other folk activities.

Saga Dawa Festival on the 15thof the fourth month of Tibetan calendar is a unique festival ofTibet.
Saga Dawameans the Disu month in the Tibetan language; Disu is one of the 28 constellations of astrology in Tibetan calendar. Because the Disu appears in the fourth month of Tibetan calendar, this month is called as the Disu month, i.e. Saga Dawa.
According to the legend, it was all on the 15thof the fourth month when the Lord Buddha Sakyamuni were born, achieved enlightenment and passed away, so various activities are held to commemorate Sakyamuni in this month of every year. All the activities on the Festival constitute the large-scale activity ofZhuanjing(circumambulation).

Zhuanjing means the circumambulation in a specific circular route. It is a very special way of praying in the Tibetan Buddhism.
There are totally 3 routes of Zhuanjingin Lhasa:
The first route is to circumambulate the main palace of the Jokhang Temple; this route is 500 meter long and is an interior circular line;
The second route is the middle circular line (Bakuo Street) with a total length of 1000 meters, a walk around the Jokhang Temple. Bakuo in Tibetan language means the middle circular line.
The third route is the external circular line (Linkuo Road) with a total length of 5000 meters, a walk around the old urban area of Lhasa. Linkuo in Tibetan language means the external circular line.
During the Saga Dawa Festival of Lhasa, the circumambulation of Linkuo is the most spectacular of all. From the first day of the Saga Dawa, streams of people appear on the Linkuo Road in many groups.

The Onkor Festival (Harvest Festival) is one of the most popular and busy festivals in the rural areas ofTibet, except theLosarFestival (Tibetan New Year). In general,Onkoris celebrated at the end of the seventh month on lunar calendar just before peasants begin to reap their crops. According to the agronomic arrangement, the specific dates for the Festival vary according to places.
It is said that theOnkorFestival has enjoyed a history of more than1500 years. According to the relevant Tibetan documents, aqueducts were constructed in the Yalong area at the end of the 5thcentury AD, people began to use wooden ploughs to plow, and the agricultural production was comparatively developed. In order to ensure the plenteous harvest, the Tibet King sbu-de-gung-rgyal asked the hierarch of Bon religion for guidance. Following the tenets of Bon religion, the hierarch of Bon religion taught the peasants to walk around their field, beseeching the Heaven for a plenteous harvest, which is the origin of theOnkor. But theOnkorwas not a formal festival at that time, only an activity before reaping the crops.
During the late years of the 8thcentury,Tibetcame to the Silver Age of Tibet Buddhism when the representative sect was theNyingmapasect, and theOnkoractivity therefore was tinged with the features of the Nyingmapa sect. In the 14thcentury,Tsong Khapa, the founderof the Gelugpa sect came toTibet. Through rectifying various sects of Tibet, the Gelugpa became the main sect in Tibet with dominant authority. More features of the Gelugpa sect were added into theOnkoractivities of the time accordingly. Along with the evolution of the time, the contents and forms of theOnkorchanged continuously.

Offering is an important component in the Tibetan Buddhism, and also the important daily rite of Tibetan Buddhist in her/his whole life. In fact, it refers to provide offerings to various deities.
Offerings can be divided into two types — real estate and puja. There are two kinds of real estate: one is the disciples’ fortune and all the best things, and the other means the things that jointly owned by human beings, including various precious deposits in the nature. Puja offering includes all treasures in the world, the sun, the moon, the mountain, even human beings’ happiness, retribution, merits and virtues, etc. According to the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, the necessary offerings include eight items: drinking water, washing water, flower, scent, lamp, unction, food and instrument. Their specific symbolic meanings are as the following correspondingly: offering drinking water to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for drink; offering washing water to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for wash; offering all beautiful colors to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for view; offering aromatic scent of the world to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for smell; offering bright lamp to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for light, offering unction to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for the good contact of the world, offering food to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for taste and offering musical instruments to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas for sound.
According to the Tibetan Buddhism, this is the simplest offering method. More offerings, more merits and virtues accumulated by people, and people will get more happiness in future.

ShotonFestival (Yoghurt Festival), usually celebrated in the sixth month of Tibetan calendar, is one of the most important festivals in the Tibetan Buddhism and in Tibetan area. It is one of the traditional festivals with a long history in Tibetan history.
“Sho” means the Yoghurt and “ton” means banquet in the Tibetan language.ShotonFestival means the festival when people drink Yoghurt according to the explanation of Tibetan. Subsequently, as the activities ofShotonFestival gradually changed into an activity with Tibetan opera as a major part, people also called it as the Tibet Opera Festival. This festival is not only popular inLhasaCity, but also inGyangtseCity. TheShotonFestival inGyangtseCitywas established later than that in theLhasaCity, and it is calledSemuqinboby the local people.
Prior to the 17th century,Shotonwas an exclusively religious observance. According to the commandments and rules of the Tibetan Buddhism, monks were not allowed to go out of monasteries for several dozen of days in summer until the ban was lifted, when they were able to go out of the monasteries and down the mountains, and local residents would offer alms of yogurt (Sho, in Tibetan) to them. In addition to the yogurt banquet, monks also amused themselves with various entertainment activities. This is the origin of theShoton. During the mid17thcentury, the government of the Qjng Dynasty (1644-1911) formally conferred tiles of nobility on the 5thDalai Lama and the 4thPanchen, and the Tibetan religion-politics integrated system was therefore strengthened. The activities of theShotonwere more colorful then, and people began to perform Tibetan opera. Accordingly, the fixedShotonFestival was established. Later, the religious activities and entertainment activities were mutually combined during the festival, the range of the festival expanded continuously from thePotalaPalaceto the Norbulingka, and people were allowed to enter into the monasteries forTibetopera shows. After that, the activities onShotonFestival were so complete that a fixed set of festival observances came into being.