About Dosmoche

About Dosmoche

Dosmoche is the great winter festival of Leh in Ladakh, held on the twenty eighth and twenty ninth days of the twelfth Tibetan month, in February, just before the Tibetan New Year. It is called the festival of the scapegoat, because its prayers gather up the troubles of the old year and send them away.

The festival was started by the kings of Ladakh, and its heart is still the courtyard below the old Leh Palace. Monks in bright robes and large masks perform the chaam, the sacred dance, to the sound of long horns, drums and cymbals, while families in warm traditional dress watch from the rooftops and steps.

Monks make a dos, a tall frame of threads and offerings, and tormas, figures of dough and butter. On the last day these are carried in a procession out of town and burnt or thrown away, taking bad luck, illness and harm with them, so the new year can begin clean.

Dosmoche is also kept at Likir and Diskit monasteries, and it is a holiday in Leh district. In the cold blue days of Ladakh's winter, it brings people out together to pray, to watch the dances and to welcome a new year of peace.