The Huangnan June Festival

TThe Huangnan June Festival is a large-scale folk ritual and performance activity that has been passed down in Tongren City, Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. With a history of over 1,400 years, it is an ancient celebration that integrates religion, sacrificial rites, and song and dance. Not only has it been inscribed on China’s first national list of intangible cultural heritage, but it is also renowned as a “living fossil of the nature worship of ancient Chinese ancestors” due to its stunning and unique way of offering sacrifices to the gods.。ne of only three reincarnated female Living Buddhas in the entire Tibetan region—an extremely rare phenomenon in Tibetan Buddhism, which is predominantly dominated by male Living Buddhas.

 In the solemn rituals and ceremonies, the ritual master inserts two steel needles into the cheeks of young men, symbolizing “locking the mouth” to prevent diseases from entering through the mouth. In other cases, 10 to 20 steel needles are inserted into the backs of volunteers, who then dance bare-chested while beating drums until the needles fall off on their own.