Tawang Festivals & Cultural Calendar

Torgya is Tawang Monastery's principal annual festival, held over three days in January according to the lunar calendar, so the Gregorian dates shift each year. Monks perform masked cham dances in the monastery courtyard, enacting the subjugation of malevolent forces, and the festival closes with the burning of a ritual effigy to carry the year's misfortune away.

Every third year the larger Dungyur Torgya is held, a more elaborate version of the same cycle. If your travel is flexible, this is the single most compelling reason to accept winter road conditions.

Losar falls in February or March and is a household festival more than a monastic one: houses are cleaned and repainted, families exchange visits, and villages hold their own dances. Travellers see a different side of Monpa life during Losar week — warmer, more domestic, less spectacular than Torgya but more intimate. Many businesses close for several days.

Choskar is the summer festival in which monks carry scriptures around the fields to bless the crop and ward off pests. It runs at village level rather than at the main monastery, with different villages on different days, and is one of the few reasons to consider a monsoon-season visit.

Dozens of smaller festivals run in village gompas throughout the year — Urgelling, Gorsam Chorten's Gorsam Kora in the Zemithang valley, and the smaller monasteries around Dirang and Bomdila all keep their own calendars. Gorsam Kora, held around the full moon of the first Monpa month, draws pilgrims from Bhutan and Tibet as well as Arunachal.

Two rules. First, confirm the dates: they follow the lunar calendar and shift by weeks between years, so book only once dates are announced. Second, book accommodation early — Tawang town has limited rooms and Torgya fills them months in advance, including the mid-range hotels most travellers assume will be available.

Arrive a day before the festival begins. The rehearsals and the preparation in the courtyard the previous evening are frequently better viewing than the crowded main day.