This is a very special festival in the Khumbu area celebrated in the month of May or June every year. There is much dancing, drinking and merry making in addition to the more serious rituals and dances performed by the monks.

The Dumje festival celebrates and honors the anniversary of Guru Rinpoche’s birth on the lotus flower. Lama Sangwa Dorgje is the founder of the earliest monasteries of Khumbu and he was the first to start the Dumje festival in Pangboche about 360 years ago in order to coincide with the birth anniversary of Guru Rimpoche.

The festival serves as a religious and community duty to help bring the villagers together. Every twenty years it falls upon one family to provide food and drink for the entire village for the duration of the celebrations, which last for 4 days. Each family has its turn to provide the festival for the village, which is quite costly for that family. On a rotation basis, four laws are chosen to undertake the responsibility of conducting Dumje and sometimes it leads a family to bankruptcy.

Dumje Festival is performed by the Tengboche Monks in Tengboche, Namche Bazaar, Khumjung and Pangboche of Khumbu and Junbesi of Solu. The Festival in Namche is the most interesting and popular one among them all. These dates may vary by one or more days as the Tengboche Rinpoche, Abbot of Tengboche Monastery, may alter the schedule depending on local events.

Kindly please contact us for more details regarding the festival date, itinerary, program, price and over all package.