Apart from the beauty of the landscape, we have some exciting cultural and religious events in Ladakh. One such type of festival is the annual festival of the monasteries, Gustor. The festival, celebrated over two days, is marked by different kinds of rituals, ceremonies, folk music & traditional dances.
Ladakh has many such festivals and celebrations. Festivals of peace and happiness. The cultural and religious essence of Ladakh is incomparable, and one can never truly get enough of Ladakh and its beauty. God has bestowed Ladakh with everything good and excellent.
One of the significant gustor festivals is Spituk Gustor, celebrated at Spituk monastery, 8 km from central Leh. Spituk Gustor Festival is a celebration of peace and prosperity.
It is a two-day festival observed during the 28th and 29th days of the 11th month of the Tibetan Calendar and symbolizes the victory of good over evil.
The charm and enthusiasm of the Spituk Gustor Festival can be felt way before as the prayers and worship starts 7 days before the festival. The festival witnesses several monks across Ladakh, including Stok, Sankar, Saboo, and Spituk congregate at the monastery. Witnessing Spituk Gustor is always appealing and embellishing from the beginning to the end. One of the major attractions of Spituk Gustor is the cham dance, also known as mask dance, performed by the monks of the monastery in their robes depicting deities. Cham is performed for humanity, destruction of bad spirits and a moral lesson to the viewers. The beautiful and melodious music and tunes of longhorns, cymbals, conch shells, bells, and many other instruments, along with the cham dance, adds charm to the festival.
We got an opportunity to talk to Gen ley at Spituk Monastery; Gen ley shared the cultural and religious essence of Spituk Gustor. Gustor is actually made up of two words, gu as in 9, which depicts that 9th,19th, and 29th are auspicious dates in Tibetan Calendar, that is why Spituk Gustor is celebrated on the 29th of 11th month of Tibetan Calendar. Stor is related to storma, which relates to the removal of evils from mankind; Storma is the effigy of the bad/evils made a few days before the main festival, and on the day of the festival, the storma is burned, which shows the destruction of the evil. The evil includes any kind of disasters, less rainfall, low crop yield, diseases, etc. All of the events are accompanied by prayers for peace and happiness. Various rituals are carried out during the festival, including Sol, Solkha, and Thimchol. These rituals are carried out to ask help from lha (protector). Each monastery has its own protectors. Thus, Gustors are meant for the benefit and happiness of all sentient beings.
Locals believe that the weather gets warmer and more pleasant after this festival. It is related to the fact that the Winter solstice falls on 21st December, and it is believed that the Sun stand still for a few days as seen from the earth and during Spituk Gustor, we pray for the easy and early arrival of summer as it is celebrated after around one month from 21st December.
