Solar Eclipse Festivals

(December 26, 2019)

Five different teams, four monasteries and one nunnery and a total of 35 monastic science leaders and over 100 other monastics, led a solar eclipse festival that reached over 3,000 monastics and about 500 laity. Five groups of 20 to 30 monks/nuns were trained to lead activity stations on the morning of the eclipse. The activity stations provided multiple ways of safely viewing the eclipse, and physical models helped explain the relative positions, size, distance, and movement of the sun, earth, and moon. These festivals took place outside on the morning of December 26, 2019 at the Sera Lachi (main temple courtyard), Gaden Lachi (main temple courtyard), Drepung Lachi (main temple courtyard), Jangchup Choeling Nunnery, Dzongkar Choede Monastery.