Location: India

Get your click and culture fix this first half of July from India

Get your click and culture fix this first half of July from the vibrant and mystical India, where almost every day is a holiday worthy of a snapshot and observant fascination.

On the 6th, celebrate with monks and thousands of other tourists as they pay a visit to the home of the 14th Dalai Lama who turns another year older. Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso or Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, is a spiritual leader revered among the people of Tibet. Running the government-in-exile based in Dharmashala, his followers believe him to be the reincarnation of his predecessors.

On the 7th, gain a better understanding of the relationship between Guru and disciple as devotees celebrate Guru Purnima, offering worship and reverence to their Gurus by remembering their lives and teachings. Stop by Tripura for Kharchi Puja, a week-long festival worshipping the earth, sustainer of all mankind. Join thousands in the temple premises as they offer sacrificial goats and pigeons in gratitude.

From the 8th to the 9th join many other tourists specially Buddhists from China, Japan, Tibet and Korea for Yuru Kabgyat Ladakh, a festival commemorating the day the Drigungpa monastery was founded. Watch colorfully dressed Buddhist monks join in the dance dramas and rituals, and lamas adorned with masks participate in the sacred plays.

On the 10th, celebrate Raksha Panchami in Orissa with the locals as they worship Lord Bhairava, one of the forms of Lord Shiva, for their deliverance from danger and evil.

Get entranced from the 11th to the 12th at Zanskar Karsha Gustor festival, also known as the fete of oracles. At the festival, a layman is formally selected, spiritually cleansed by the lamas, prepared for receiving the spirit of the Holy Deity and is then expected to predict the future. During the festival a hat dance is performed to ward off evil.

Pump up the shutterbug in you for Rath Yatra on the 13th. Also known as the Festival of Chariots of Lord Jagannatha, the festival is celebrated at Puri, a temple town in Orissa. Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balarama and Goddess Subhadra, with the celestial wheel Sudarshana are taken out from the temple in an elaborate ritual procession and taken to their respective chariots. The huge, colorful chariots are drawn by hundreds and thousands of devotees to the Queen Gundicha’s temple, some two miles away.

From the 13th to the 14th, stop by Ladkh for the Phyang Tsedup festival featuring a pilgrimage to the huge painting of Skyabje Jigten Gombo, founder of the Dringungpa monastic order, exhibited for the event, among the performed sacred dance dramas.

Finally on the 14th is Bastille Day or National France Day at Pondicherry. It is after all, one of the most important colonies of France as it once was the center of all French transactions with India and the rest of Asia. Retired soldiers join in a parade and celebrate the day with Indian and French National Anthems while uniformed war soldiers march through the streets to honor the French soldiers who were killed in the battle.