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Ura Yakchoe
The term yak/yag in the festival name can be understood in two ways. One is that it was originally a thanksgiving for the yaks and cattle, which are so important in the traditional economy. The second is that yag is here an exclamation of joy, of good event.
The Yakchoe is a several day annual event for the people of Ura, a high valley of Bumthang district. It is originally a festival dedicated to the pre-Buddhist Bon protective deities of the valley and has incorporated Buddhist characteristics as the Yakchoe also commemorates an important event.
The four-day festival is being observed in honor of the deity Chador (Vajrapani) whose statue is said to have appeared miraculously in a wool container of an old woman after Guru Rinpoche visited her house in Ura village. Guru Rinpoche had come to Ura as a beggar after the villagers implored him to cure a leprosy epidemy.
This sacred statue is kept the whole year in the house of the Lama of Gadan outside the village proper. It is said that when the statue arrived at Gadan, a snake rose from the place and escaped the valley. As Vajrapani is known for subduing the subterranean beings which are believed to afflict leprosy, the villagers knew the valley was freed from the curse.
The whole community participate to the festival in different capacities: women prepare food and drinks, young girls dance, present offerings and serve alcohol, men perform the dances and rituals, play musical instruments.
The first day statue of Vajrapani is taken out of its house in Gadan and brought in procession to the old woman house in Ura village and goes back to Gadan the last day of the festival. During this time, the caretaker of the statue and a central figure of the festival is the Gadan Gathpo (“the old man of Gadan”) who is at the same time a bawdy jester and the host of the festival. With a black wrinkled mask, dressed in dark woolen cloth and waving a wooden phallus, this figure has the heavy responsability of the smooth running of the festival.
Every afternoon, there is a ritual community gathering, the choja, where tea and rice are served accompanied by traditional songs.
During three days, mask dances performed by the gomchen (religious laymen) of Ura. These include the dances of the three kinds of Ging, Pholay Molay and the dance of the Drums from Drametse as well as Raksha marcham, the dance of the Judgement of the Dead, which is on the 15th day. This dance is followed by a procession of people carrying offerings and singing around the Ura temple courtyard.
On the 16th day, the Yakchoe ends with a general blessing of the public by the statue of Vajrapani and then goes back in a procession to Gadan.
A thangka of Guru Rinpoche presented by His Majesty the 5th King in 2010 is shown on the 15th day of the festival.
The mask dances were added to the Yakchoe some 75 years ago.
The festival itself is said to have been established in the 14th century but there is no historical text so far.