Markets and squares in Lhasa busy with preparations for festival

LHASA - Residents of Lhasa, capital of the Tibet autonomous region, are busy welcoming the Tibetan New Year with songs and dances, as well as shopping fever.

The Tibetan New Year, which falls on Wednesday, is the most important festival for Tibetans.

More than 5,000 people, organized by Lhasa's bureau of culture, rehearsed traditional songs and dances on Potala Square on Monday. The artists, bathed in golden sunshine and dressed in fine clothes, will perform in residential communities, villages and pastoral areas during the festival.

And markets in the city are as heated as the rehearsal site.

Kromziggang, located at the south of East Beijing Road, is the largest market in Lhasa. Washed into the market by a stream of customers, you will be greeted with all kinds of splendid colors - flowers in dark red, barley seedlings in green, wheat ears dyed yellow, green and blue, as well as sutra streamers in sky blue, white, red, gold and green.

Norbu usually sells vegetables in the market, but with Tibetan New Year coming, he has begun to sell dyed wheat ears.

He said selling wheat ears before the festival is a traditional business for his family.

"Every August during the harvest, we preserve the wheat ears with plump grains and straight straw for the festival. Before New Year, we dye them in dark red, golden yellow and green and bring them to the market."

Toblag, from Nyemo county, the Tibet autonomous region, sells sutra streamers in a market in the regional capital Lhasa on Monday, two days ahead of Tibetan New Year. Dachiong / China Daily