The Yaklha (གཡག་ལྷ་) ceremony is an annual propitiation to the yak and cattle gods conducted in the Ura Valley. It is believed to be a pre-Buddhist ritual of seasonal offerings to the gods that includes a sang purification that uses an archaic liturgy from the Bön religion. It is observed as a social event among livestock-owning households based up in the higher elevations.

Origins

The Yaklha ceremony has its origins in the Bön religious practice of propitiating the cattle gods in order to maintain and enhance the welfare of the livestock, particularly yaks and cows. Thus, it is also held in the mountain clearings where the cattle graze rather than in the family homes in the village. The liturgical text for the sang offering make clear the ritual’s pre-Buddhist origins, though it is unclear whether the practice can be directly linked to the institutionalized Bön religion of Tibet. It is not clear when the ceremony was first introduced in the Ura valley, though it is worth noting that the neighbouring Tang valley has a similar festival. The ritual perhaps spread to these valleys with the settlers coming from Tibet at least over a thousand years ago.

The Ceremony Proper

The Yaklha ceremony is held in the seventh month of the Bhutanese lunar calendar. The exact date is determined by the village astrologer who considers agricultural activities and carries out astrological calculation to find the most auspicious time for the circumstances. Approximately a month before the ceremony, housewives begin preparing grains to make alcohol and the cow and yak herders start accumulating butter and cheese to use in the ceremony.

The day before the festival begins, some men from the village help the cow herders to make temporary shelters for the people who come for the occasion. The ceremony takes place in a clearing known as tsersa (མཚེར་ས་), located in the middle of a forest and meadows where the cattle graze. Normally, a hut is built in the clearing as a temporary residence for the cowherder. As a few families may gather one tsersa, the hut or shed is sometimes enlarged, with fresh ferns, pine or fir branches laid out as a carpet and stuck on the walls to serve as insulation. They also collect firewood and juniper branches for making the sang offering.

On the opening day of the ceremony, members of the household leave the village carrying their bedding and various foods to join the cowherders in the mountains. Horses were traditionally used to carry the loads. Young children are dressed in good clothes, made to wear amulets and blessed cords and, if it is their first journey out of the village marked with a tiny amount of soot on their nose. After arriving and getting settled in the tsersa, the women start preparing food as the men gather the cattle.

At dusk, the men including a priest who knows the rituals, called lhapön (ལྷ་དཔོན་), invoke the cattle gods at the spot dedicated to the deity worship. Billowing smoke is made near the designated ritual area, which is marked by a stone or wooden altar. A freshly cut juniper tree is erected at the spot and the leading man holds it in his hands, before walking backward about three steps and chanting the incantation to invite the cattle gods. The incantation mentions the four mountains gods of Tibet, the god Öde Gunggyal, the thirteen deities and the twelve tenma (བརྟན་མ་) gods of the Himalayas. Cumulatively, the deities are asked to provide longevity, essential wealth, warm clothes, and nutritious food.

When the incantation is finished, the men let out a loud cry of celebration. With the anticipation of the gods’ arrival, the men walk to the shed in a line. At the entrance of the hut, a woman offers alcohol as a reception drink. After the gods are invited to the altar set up in the hut, preparations are made for the offering. The priest makes torma (གཏོར་མ་) figures and they are placed on the altar along with food and drinks. Then, after dinner, the priest begins offering sang to the gods as he chants an ancient text. The priest wears a white belt around his forehead uses a drum. Everyone present refrains from Buddhist prayers, idle conversation, and entertainment for the evening. As the priest carries out the sang ritual, a young man stands by and regularly adds incense powder to the fire.

The chanting continues until daybreak when the main offerings to the gods are made. At mid-morning, the priest moves outside near the worship spot, where several cattle including leading yak bulls, dri cows, regular bulls and cows are brought together and tied to fixed ropes. The herders then decorate the animals with coloured hair and place blessings of water, milk and flour on the animals. The horns of the lead cattle are decorated with pieces of deep fried bread called markhu (མར་ཁུ་). These animals represent the offering of livestock to the gods as a token of thanksgiving. The herd of cows and yaks are then driven off to graze after this ceremony; the gods are believed to have left with them.

Festivities begin after the offerings to the gods are concluded. People play games, sing and dance as older people tell stories and jokes. People eat rice or buckwheat pancakes with butter, milk and butter milk. The meals are largely vegetarian with little or no meat, though alcohol is served in abundance. One of the meals is dough made from roasted barley flour, which is served with a cup of melted butter. A unique dish is the markhu bread, which is served with a red chilly dish. It is the same type of bread as that which is put on the horns of the lead cattle. The families will spend five to seven days in the mountains enjoying this festival. After a few days, men sometimes collect firewood or timber for construction during the day time. Today, the Yaklha festival is almost extinct as most families have given up rearing cattle in the mountains.

Karma Phuntsho is a social thinker and worker, the President of the Loden Foundation and the author of many books and articles including The History of Bhutan.