In addition to the New Year, the other commonly celebrated festivals among all Tibetan people are the Linka Festival, Bathing Festival, Ongkor Festival and Horse Racing Festival, etc.

Linka Festival

In Tibetan language, linka means grove. In each summer, when flowers are in full bloom under sunshine, people, who have just gone through a long harsh winter, swarm to the linkas in the suburbs to enjoy nature. In Lhasa, there is no fixed date for the festival. It many be spent on any days ranging from the late fourth month to the late eighth month, yet the period between the first day to the 15th day of the fifth month is the peak time. During the festival, people in festal attire will carry with them a lot of food, cooking utensils and tents to the linka, and enjoy themselves there days and nights. People of different families will visit each other's tents. There are also folk art performances. Nowadays, the modern programs are added as well, e. g. disco dancing, electronic games, and so on. While in Xigaze (Shigatse), the Festival is fixed on June first of the Gregorian calendar, when many people will gather in Konjo Linka at the riverside of the Nyangqu River to have a great fun. While in some areas of the Gongbo region, people will spend the festival in the virgin forests, where they camp and relax themselves for a couple of days.

Bathing Festival

It is called 'Gama Rije'in Tibetan language, and has a history of over 800 yeas in Lhasa, Xigaze (Shigatse) and Shannan. It generally lasts seven days, between the sixth day to twelfth day of the seventh Tibetan month, which just coincides with the appearance in the sky of Venus, a sacred star. Believing that the water in this period has an extreme magic power to cure all, the people swarm to the riverside to take baths at night. Here is the spectacular scene: in the river, the elders are thoroughly washing themselves; the youngsters are swimming; the children are playing with water; the ladies are also joining the wash as freely as the men. Afterwards they will stay in tents or under umbrellas, drinking the barley wine and buttered tea, singing and dancing to their heart's content.

Ongkor Festival

This Festival is prevalent in rural areas, especially in those areas along the middle reach of the Yarlung Tsangpo River and Lhasa River Valley. In Tibetan language, 'Ong'means the field, and 'Kor'means walking around, so it means walking around the crop fields to express the farmers?yearning for a good harvest. Each year at the crop-ripening time, the monks of the monasteries nearby will select an auspicious day to stage the festival, during which the people, all dressed up, carrying barley beer and food, follow the monks, who hold high the Buddhist images, scriptures and prayer flags, and march around their ripening fields and yell for the deity's and Buddha's blessing. Afterwards, they will have horse racing, archery contests and song and dance performances all night, shifting the atmosphere from solemnity to joyfulness. The date of the festival in different places varies according to ripening of the crops. As long as you don't mind running from one place to another, you many possibly participate in several Ongkor festivals in a string.