Hemis Fetsival

Hemis Festival: The Hemis Monastery celebrates this event in the form of a 2 days Festival.  Its resident monks perform sacred masked dances leading to the destruction of the sacrificial offerings.  Masks worn by the monks represent various guardian divinities of the Drugpa order of which Hemis is the leading establishment in Ladakh.  This 200 year old tradition was introduced by a member of Ladakh's ruling family who was reincarnated in the 18th Century as the monastery's Head Lama.  Sras Rinpochey ( Staktsang Rimpochey).  The Hemis dances are a re-enactment of the magical feast of Padmasambhava in his services to the cause of Buddhism in his eight different manifestations.    The Festival takes an auspicious turn every 12 years in the Tibetan year of the Monkey, when the two storey high Thanka is display on the wall.