Kangding Yuangen Lantern Festival
is also known as the "Five Supplements Section". In Tibetan, it is called "Gardeng Anqu". It is held every year on October 25th of the Tibetan calendar and lasts for 1-2 days. It is a traditional religious festival for the Tibetan people in Grubatang District.
October 25th of the Tibetan calendar is the day when Master Tsongkhapa, the founder of Tibetan Buddhism Geluba (commonly known as the Yellow Religion), passed away and became a Buddha. In order to commemorate this outstanding religious leader, various Huangjiao temples and believers in Tibetan areas held grand sacrificial activities such as chanting scriptures, kowtowing, and lantern offering ceremonies on the 25th of the October lunar calendar to worship the spirit of Master Tsongkhapa in heaven and pray that the master will bestow blessings and happiness on good people.
On the night of the festival, the Minghuang Temple and the people in Ganzi Prefecture must light a butter lamp on every step where lights can be lit around the pagoda, on the roof of the hall, window sill, inner Buddhist hall, Buddhist shrine, and sacrificial altar. Provide a bowl of clean water in the temple to illuminate the pagoda, temple, Buddhist hall, and house with bright lights, and recite scriptures piously to commemorate Master Tsongkhapa. Especially for those large temples built on the mountains (such as Ganzi Temple, Litang Temple, Lingque Temple, etc.), when viewed from a distance, the lanterns are arranged in a line or pagoda-shaped shape to provide lights like stars falling to the ground, illuminating the night sky brightly.
In Kangding, people call the "Diandeng Festival" the "Yuangen Lantern Festival". Legend has it that after the completion of the Anjue Temple, built by five monks including Rosangler, a later Tibetan, was located in the city, it chose to hold the final light ceremony on the day of the Diandeng Festival. At that time, there were not enough copper and silver lanterns needed for thousands of supplies (thousands of supplies such as flowers, incense, lamps, water, food, etc.), so the center of the local abundant Yuangen (turnip) was cut out, inserted the lamp core, and melted it down to make Yuangen lanterns for Buddha, which solved the urgent need. That night, Yuangen lanterns were covered on the altar tables, porches, and corners inside and outside the Buddha Hall. Believers helped the old and the young, carrying Yuangen lanterns and providing lanterns to come to participate in the lantern festival. There were people outside the temple, watching lanterns and worshiping Buddha, making it very lively. Since then, Kangding (Diandeng Festival) has been called the "Yuangen Lantern Festival" and has become a traditional Tibetan festival with unique characteristics of Kangding that has been inherited to this day.
Every year, the main sacrificial period is from October 24th to 26th of the Tibetan calendar. Several Huangjiao temples in Kangding hold Dharma meetings, setting up crispy oil flowers and burning Yuan lanterns to worship Buddha. In addition to providing lanterns at home, believers also climbed Paoma Mountain and went to Nanwu Temple to pay homage to lanterns and oil. After night, flocked to Anjue Temple in droves to participate in the Yuangen Lantern Festival.
On this night, some temples and families also offered five kinds of offerings, including steamed buns, sugar, and fresh fruits, in front of the Buddha statue, so it is commonly known as the Five Sacrifice Festival.
At the Lantern Festival in Kangding's Urban area, children on the street are chasing and playing with each other with Yuangen lanterns (hollowing out the Yuangen roots and lighting a short wax candle inside). It is called the "Yuangen Club" here.