Losar - Tibetan New Year
Dates: The New Years festival falls on the 25th day of the 10th month of the Tibetan calendar. Celebrated over a week, it is a feast of thanksgiving. The Tibetan New Year's festival usually occurs in early February or in March.
Place: Tibet
Activities: At dawn on New Year's Day, Tibetans visit monasteries, shrines, and stupas to make offerings. Colorful new prayer flags are hung out over each home and the smell of incense wafts through the villages. Then families venture out to drink the New Year's chang (unhopped beer) with friends, to picnic in the parks and meadows, or to watch an archery tourney. There is great merriment and revelry as people thank the gods and pay homage to their ancestors for providing abundant food. The festivities are spread over almost a fortnight. During the first four days of the festival, there are a series of private family feasts.
A large dosmo (propitious pole) is erected and decorated. Numerous other propitious rituals, such as tsamba- throwing (toasted barley or wheat flour) take place.

Saga Dawa Festival - the Birth of the Buddha
Dates: on the 15th of the fourth month of Tibetan calendar is a unique festival of Tibet
Place: Lhasa, Tibet
Activities: According to the legend, it was all on the 15th of 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. Folk entertainers will perform Tibetan tradition; they will pay their homage to Buddha, observe a vegetarian rule, refrain from killing domestic animals and give out alms during the month.

Ghost - Exorcising Festival
Dates: Ghost-Exorcising Festival also called Sorcerers' Festival, it held on the 29th day of the 12th month according to Tibetan Calendar. It usually occurs in March.
Place: All over Tibet
Activities: During this festival, large-scale sorcerers' dances take place at Lhasa's Potala Palace and other monasteries to subdue devils and ward off disasters.
At night, in every household, traditional means of driving off evil spirits are carried out by burning bundles of straw and throwing rubbish in the crossroads. The Year's End Dumpling is served for supper.

The Colorful Lingka Festival
Dates: on the 15th day of the fifth month, and the Xodoin Festival, on the first day of the seventh month, and ends at the Bathing Festival, early in the eighth month.
Place: Tibet
Activities: Every time the festival comes round, the Tibetans dress in their best clothes and rush to the lingka from Lhasa. Every family sets up a tent in the woods. Most of the tents are white, with simple decorations. People set up cooking facilities, chairs and tables, on which they place all kinds of food, dishes and beverages. They sing, dance, tell stories, play games and drink day and night. Sometimes, they watch films, artistic performance and Tibetan opera.

Tashilhunpo Festival
Dates: The 4th of the 6th month by Tibetan calendar is a religious festival for the front Tibetan area. It usually occurs on June 24-26, the festival lasts for three days.
Place: Shigatse, Tibet
Activities: Different portraits of Buddha are exhibited each day. They are hand-embroidered on silk or satin. The Buddha-unfolding Festival is an important religious activity at Tashilumpo Temple for scripture chanting, prayer for rain and also a joyous festival for masses in rear Tibet.

Horse - Racing Festival
Dates: The last 10-day period of August (between the end of the seventh month and the early part of the eighth month of the Tibetan calendar)
Place: Nagqu Qiangtang and Gyantse in Tibet
Activities: Horse races, archery, horsemanship and material exchange activities will be held.

Shoton Festival
Dates: August (from the end of the sixth month to the early part of the eighth month of the Tibetan calendar)
Place: Lhasa, Tibet
Activities: The Shoton Festival is also known as the Yogurt Banquet Festival since locals have the custom to eat Tibetan yogurt during the gala. During the festival, religious follows will display a large picture of the Buddha under the sun, traditional Tibetan opera will be performed and various materials fairs will be held. Tourists can also visit southern Tibet.

Gyantse Damma Festival
Dates: It is held from April 10 to 27 on the Tibetan calendar. The Dharma Festival usually lasts seven to 10 days.
Place: In Gyangze, Tibet
Activities: Activities include the display of Buddha Portrait, sorcerer's dance in a trance, wrestling and bearing contest.

Bathing Festival
Dates: The Festival is held in the 7th month of the Tibetan calendar, it lasts for 7 days from 6 to 12. It usually occurs on 8-14th September.
Place: Tibet
Activities: During the Bathing Week, Tibetans, both old and young, man and woman, from towns or countryside or pastoral areas, go to rivers to take a holy bath. It is said to be able to heal diseases and keep you fit.

Harvest Festival
Dates: In general, Onkor is 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 usually occurs in September.
Place: Lhasa, Gyantse and Shannan in Tibet
Activities: It is a holiday for Tibetans, looking forward to harvest. It is usually celebrated when crops are ripe, and will last three to five days. People dress up, hold colorful flags with good wishes, and carry a "harvest tower" built with barley stalks and ears. They sing and dance, beat drums and gongs and walk around the fields. On this day, people also enjoy horseracing etc. Then they will begin the intense autumn harvest.

Monlam - Great Prayer Festival
Dates: Great Prayer Festival or Grand Summons Ceremony, Also known as Monlam, the Grand Summons Ceremony falls on the 1st-15th day of the first Tibetan month as the most important and grandest religious festival in Tibet. It usually occurs in February.
Place: Tibet, and Gansu Province
Activities: It has its origin in a prayer meeting organized at Jokhang Temple by Tsong Khapa, founder of the Gelukpa Sect, in 1409. Thousands of monks from far and near will gather for prayers, theological debates and examination for Geshe, a doctoral degree in Buddhist theology, at the temple. Pilgrims will come from everywhere to listen to sermons.
The highlight of the festival will be the 'sunning of the Buddha' ceremony, during which a thangka of Buddha measuring 30 meters (90 ft) by 20 meters (60 ft) will be unfurled on a hillside. The festival will be accompanied by lively drama performances, dances and prayer assemblies throughout the entire period.

Butter Lamp Festival
Dates: This festival takes place on the 15th day of the 1st Tibetan month which happens to be the last day of the Monlam Festival.
Place: Tibet
Activities: Celebrating Buddha's Miracle Day with butter lamps and butter sculptures
The Butter Lamp Festival falls on January 15 of the Tibetan calendar, which has its origin in a celebration with many butter lamps to honor the victory of Sakyamuni in a debate against Heretics. During the festive celebration, Barkhor Street in Lhasa is crowded with people and by nightfall is brightly lit with thousands of lamps made of butter in an intriguing assortment of designs.
During the day the Tibetans pay homage to the Buddha by turning prayer wheels in their hands; at night, they light butter-burning lamps and sing and dance to pray for blessings.

Tibetan Meadow Festival
Dates: It is celebrated on the early first month of Tibetan calendar. The festival lasts about one week.
Place: Tibet
Activities: Prior to the festival, every family tidies up the house. According to the customs of the Tibetans, people pour out sewage and rubbish toward the west when the sun is setting down the west. It means to have all stuff harmful to the human health disappear.
During the first three days of the festival, it is a custom for the villagers not to go out of the village. All of them watch the sorcerer's dance in a trance, which is a kind of the traditional religious dance.
In three days, people bring along with the old and young to drop around in the village greeting to each other for a merry festival.

Molang Qinbo Festival
Dates: It is held on January 15 of Tibetan calendar.
Place: Tibet
Activities: During the ceremony, the lamas from the three large temples and other monasteries will assemble in the city, reciting the scripture in groups. In addition, the examination will be given to acquire the "Gexi" scholarship degree.