The origin and significance of the Festival of Lights is an event held to commemorate the death of the Buddhist reformer and founder of the Gelugpa school, Guru Tsongkhapa.

A few days before the Lantern Festival, Tibetan Buddhists start making ghee lamps, and each lama in the temple has to make more than 30 ghee lamps. On the night of the Lantern Festival, the windowsills of every house are filled with ghee lamps. Because in the Tibetan concept, singular numbers have auspicious meanings, so the number of lamps are singular.

Lighting Festival at 8 o'clock that night, in front of the gate of the Da Zhao Temple, water is not enough. Dharma horn, law snail, golden oboe sound, monks on both sides of the road, around the stupa, hall roof, window sill, indoor Buddha Hall, Buddha niche, offering table, etc., as well as where you can light up the steps, light a ghee lamps, and in the Buddha Hall for a bowl of pure water, lamps and water, the stupa, the hall, the Buddha Hall, the house illuminated brightly.

Specifically, the top of the temple enclosure on the top of the Showa Temple that circle of flickering, connected to a piece of ghee light, far away from the view, as if the stars fall to the ground, the night sky is brightly illuminated. At this time, the believers sang in unison scripture, mourning ZongKaBa master, the scene is solemn, solemn.

Customs

1, Kanding

In Kanding, people call the Festival of Lights the Yuan Gen Lantern Festival. Legend has it that after the completion of the Anjue Monastery built by the five monks of the later Tibetans, such as Lobsang Geler, located in the city, they chose the day of the festival to hold the inauguration ceremony.

Then the required thousand for (flowers, incense, lamps, water, food, etc. full of thousands of offerings) of copper, silver lamps is not enough, so the local abundance of yuan root (turnip) center gouge out the empty, inserted stamens, pouring molten pastry, made of yuan root lamps for the Buddha, to solve the pressing problem.

That night, inside and outside the Buddha's temple on the table, porch, corners, etc. are covered with yuan root lamps. The believers, old and young, hand-held yuan root lamps, offering lamps to participate in the festival. Temple inside and outside the sea of people, watching the lights, worship, lively and extraordinary. From then on, the Kangding Lantern Festival is known as the Yuangen Lantern Festival, and has become a traditional Tibetan festival with unique characteristics of Kangding that has been inherited to the present day.

2, Aba

December 6, 2015, in order to commemorate the founder of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism, Master Tsongkhapa passed away and became a Buddha, Aba County, Sichuan Province, the believing monks in Gerdeng Temple to hold the annual traditional religious activities, "Lantern Lighting Festival". During the event, the temple held a puja, monks recited scriptures all night long, and the religious people went to the temple one after another to pray and light lamps to pray for blessings.