Lhasa Bathing Festival:Night Activities

Star rises over the Holy Bottle Mountain in the southeast, the Lhasans tell one another: "The Bathing Festival begins."
The Star appears only for seven nights a year, and correspondingly the Bathing Festival lasts for seven nights, too.
As night falls with Garma Duiba Star rising to join other twinkling stars, Lhasans, the young in particular, go out for a dip in the Lhasa River in southern Lhasa, the Garma Gunsang Lake in eastern Lhasa, or the Lugou Stream in western Lhasa.
Obsessed with love for things they deem holy, they do their best to wash away their troubles. Immersed in water they feel an organic integration of soul and body with the great nature. They have the strong belief that bathing for the consecutive seven nights will enable them to keep off cold and plague, and therefore enjoy good health and long life.
During the seven-day Festival, the Lhasans light bonfires by the river bank. As the fire flickers, meat BBQed over the fire gives a flavor that makes people mouth water.
Having dipped in water for some time, they gather around the bonfires that dot the world of willow trees, to dine and wine to their heart's content. Then, they play six-stringed musical instrument, sing folk songs and dance merrily.
Legend has it that all Tibetan medicine practitioners were sent by God Wangbo Gyiqen to save the sick on the earth. When these people grew old and they were so emaciated that they had no energy to carry medical kits, they returned to the Heaven where magic power would return youth to them. And they went down to the earth again....
One of these was Moinlha which means God Medicine in Tibetan language. Upon completing his mission on the earth, he return to the Heaven. Before long, Tibet was hit by a devastating plague. Many died and those who had a narrow escape yearned to see Moinlha again.
Heavenly King allowed Moinlha to go down to the earth, demanding that he perform the mission in seven days and seven nights.
Understanding he was not able to complete the mission in these seven days and seven nights as there were so many to be treated in Tibet, Moinlha decided he incarnated into a star. When he had done so, a sick girl in Lhasa saw in dream Moinlha was spreading medicine from the top of the Treasure Bottle Mountain in eastern Lhasa. When the medicine fell into the river, the river water became liquid medicine. She struggled into the river, and was delighted to see she recover. Seeing this, others who were sick followed suit. This lasted for seven days and seven nights until the Garma Duiba Star disappeared.builders unresponsive.