LAPTSE IN SPRING
Laptse is a festival where men from all clans gather to honour the local deities. Riding their horses, dressed in their best and bearing their family arrows, men pledge their allegiance to the local deities, appealing for their guidance and blessings for good fortune.
The eleventh day of the second month of the lunar calendar is an important day in Ritoma. Jampa, who grew up in a nomad family, remembers gathering before dawn, at three or four in the morning, helping his father and brother saddle their horses, saddlebags filled with fragrant incense.
Boys would begin attending a laptse from the age of seven or eight, fathers eager to familiarise their sons with their traditions as soon as they could ride a horse. Each Ritoma family contributed one man and horse to the event. To be a part of a group of grown men from his clan and beyond, joining a frenzy of 300 on horseback filled Jampa with excitement, pride, and belonging, riding up the mountain with the air imbued with cries and songs.
Riding in the dark for an hour, they reach Ritoma’s highest peak, the Amnye Tongra, at dawn. Shaped like a crouching tiger, it dominates the area, known as the abode of the deity whose name it bears. When all the men from the village had assembled, they light the pyre, offering barley, yogurt and sugar to the flames, singing praises to the gods.
On the plateau, nature and people are interdependent. Humans acknowledge this by paying homage to their mountains and water sources, asking the resident deities to help them open their minds to good intentions and deeds that will help restore harmony. This is why the laptse is so essential.
Jampa remembers the emotion of reaching the top of Amnye Tongra, with its sweeping view over the rolling hills beyond. It often stands above the clouds, and he described a feeling of lightness and detachment, almost walking on those puffy white clouds in another realm, far away from earthly concerns. He said that when stressed, he imagines himself on top of Amnye Tongra, closer to the gods, connected with nature and the universe.
On the way back, the clansmen would settle on the plain at the foot of the mountain and race their best horses against each other. This is a moment of fun and relaxation, enjoying the race and exchanging news, a grassland party that lasts until dusk.
Though the local laptses are still an essential part of life in Ritoma today, the horse races at the local level have gradually faded. When Jampa was a child, all families kept horses, which they used when herding, and good horses were the pride of a family, a source of envy, earning them fame and prestige. Nowadays, fewer families keep horses as they are high maintenance in both time and expense. Many find it easier to herd with motorbikes, and priorities have shifted to more economically based choices. There are still many horses, but these are kept by a few families for the races at the more prominent annual laptses.
The race over, the men stop by Ritoma’s most sacred spring to pay homage to the water deities that dwell there. On that same day, the monastery liberates sheep and yak on behalf of the village herders, tying a katha around their neck to mark their new status of Tsethar, meaning ‘whose life that has been spared’. This act is meant to negate the negative karma accumulated as nomads, having had to kill for their livelihood over many years. The nomads pledge to take good care of this animal until it dies of natural causes at a ripe old age, ensuring it is well-fed and protected from wolves.
