Tibetan New Year leads to a spurt of “winter travel to Tibet”
At present, the strong taste of Tibetan New Year is ever-present in Tibet. All of Tibet’s major travel agents are offering tourist activities themed around Tibetan New Year. Foreign and domestic tourists can enjoy the unique winter charm of Tibet as well as experience a variety of local folk activities.
Tibetan New Year is the most grand and has the richest flavor of local culture of all Tibetan festivals. New Year occurs in winter when the snow mountains and glaciers are magnificently white; and the sacred Namtso lake, once frozen over, appears even more beautiful as it glistens like sapphire.
It is reported that the themed events for this year’s Tibetan New Year include pilgrimage prayers at Potala Palace, worshipping the Buddha by circumambulating Jokhang Temple, worshipping the god of wealth at Zhaji Temple, hanging prayer flags behind Sera Monastery, visiting a Tibetan family to make butter tea, highland barley wine tasting, eating Kasai (fried Tibetan snack), watching a Tibetan opera or Guozhuang dance and experiencing the fairy tales of the sacred Namtso Lake and Yamdrok Lake.
Tibetan travel agents have promised that, during the Tibetan New Year period, tourists can enjoy the same service as that of the high season, but with more convenient accommodation and lower ticket prices.
Winter in Tibet isn’t cold, furthermore, Lhasa is the famous “Sunlight City”. In recent years, following improvements of transport infrastructure in Tibet, increasing numbers of tourists are choosing to come to Tibet for Tibetan New Year. Data shows that, during Spring Festival last year, Lhasa received 274,440 tourists, of whom over 85,000 were overnight visitors.