Khampa Culture & Art Festival / Horse Race Festival 康巴

Song: Tashi Ta Gya from Kham, E. Tibet. Fashion Show 服装展示 .
Beyond the Kentucky Derby. Khampa Horse Festival in Kham, Sichuan.
Celebrating Khampa warriors' nomadic lifestyles, the festivals highlight traditional games including scarf-snatching stunts, equestrians wielding swords, shooting arrows, and firing rifles. In fits of joy, spectators often storm the battlefield after the races. Eat some yak jerky, dance to regional music and drink lots of highland barley wine called chang.


Every August, farmers and merchants, monks and minstrels, nomads and tourists converge on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau to watch the region's famed Khampa horsemen. The Khampa horsemen are clad in all their finery. Bells jingle on their horses. Riders' long black hair is adorned with silver, turquoise and coral jewelry. They wear big hats on their heads and big knives on their belts. The festival opens with a charge past the reviewing stand and continues with a display of skills learned during a life spent on horseback. The riders hang sideways off saddles, scooping silk scarves off the ground at full gallop. They twirl flintlock muskets over their heads and fire at targets on the ground. "To Khampa men, riding horses is a glorious thing," says Gezun Norbu of Litang. "We feel proud to be the descendants of the heroic King Gesar. To gallop on horseback across the boundless grasslands makes us feel extremely confident and happy." Technology is bringing change to the region, even without an airport or train station to be found in the mountainous terrain. Satellite-dish TV has arrived. Some have abandoned horses for motorcycles. And the nomadic Khampa lifestyle is giving way to a more settled existence through government resettlement in fixed communities. But life is still hard and the annual horse festival provides a welcome break from the Khampas' labors... and a chance to celebrate their traditions. With each year's horse festival, the ratio of tourists to riders seems to rise. Today, the Khampas are warriors more in spirit than in deed. But in their annual display of skill and abandon, charging at full tilt, they appear as fiercely proud and free as ever (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5706442) .
Khampa Art Festival is actually three events in one: 1st, it's a classic Khampa Horse Festival and a dance competition among troupes arrayed in regional finery; 2nd, it's an arts and crafts festival; 3rd, it's a trade fair, with items of every description offered in temporary shops within the sprawling tent city. And it's all under blue sky dotted with white clouds, flowers are in full blossom in the wild grasslands with light wind, nomadic herders in finery gather from all directions, some riding horse and yak. They race horse, sing, dance and drink wine for days running with snow-capped mountains skirted by pure rivers in the distance, as well as materials(barter) exchange (http://www.camptour.com/khampa/art-festival.htm).

Category:

Music

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• kham
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• gesar
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• highland
• pony
• fashion
• show
• 服装展示

[purespirit9]

Wow this so such a beautiful festival, your vid actually made me moving to the rhythm all the way through, pretty exciting just watching, thanks i had a great time viewing your vid. Love your culture ikhamo. Thanks :)

[ikhamo]

They hold these festivals regulalrly to keep it alive and flourishing.

[CHINALAMA]

I like it 5/5

[ikhamo]

@CHINALAMA

it's Khampa style.

[tibetsorrow59]

This is so cool. you know i hear thses musices I really miss Namas in Lhasa back in days. so nice to hear such wonderful songs. thanks for posting.

[PrometheanRunGood]

nice video

[mkeily1]

wonderful! I am also making a video clip of horsemen at a festival in Tingri held last June. I am after a traditional folk song about horses or one's love of tibet et.c... Can anyone tell me the names of some songs that I could buy over the internet please? Traditional songs with traditional instruments and a man's voice not modern music made from a computer. thanks, mary

[elsaphir]

"To gallop on horseback across the boundless grasslands makes us feel extremely confident and happy" ..this is same for me, one of the best things I know.:)

Thanks for sharing, it's really amazing and I'm looking forward to be there, even if the next august seems to be so soon to me.. And I hope we'll have the chance to ride these horses also. Let's see.;)

[tibetsorrow59]

Actually, I have seen you add a lots of nice videos like these onces so cool. I like khampa dance so much may be that's because I am khampa as well.

[ChinaGirl903]

Very beautiful dancing...always worth my thumbs up.