Fourth Minyak Folk Culture Festival Opens in Kangding, China

Dragon Media News Desk

The fourth Minyak Folk Culture Festival of 2026 has opened in Kangding, Sichuan Province, China, with a wide range of programmes showcasing the rich cultural heritage of the Minyak people.

The festival highlights traditional costumes, residential architecture, folk songs, dances, handicrafts and other forms of cultural expression. Minyak culture, which has a long historical tradition, is regarded locally as an important part of the outstanding traditional culture of the Chinese nation.

The folk culture exhibition week has been organised around two major themes. One focuses on the preservation, transmission and innovative development of Minyak intangible cultural heritage, while the other presents a broad range of exhibitions and performances featuring Minyak culture.

The festival includes displays by horse-riding teams, storytelling programmes based on Minyak oral traditions, traditional songs and dances, and various cultural performances. Equestrian competitions and artistic presentations related to the Gesar tradition are also being held, highlighting the courage, spirit, dignity and cultural identity of communities living across the grassland region.

Other activities include milk-milking competitions among local herder women, song and dance performances by Minyak youth, traditional weaving using wool and animal fibre, stone carving and other handicraft contests.

Through these events, the festival presents the beauty of daily life in the Minyak region, local skills, traditional livelihoods and cultural practices passed down through generations.

The festival is also intended to connect cultural preservation with local development. Organisers are promoting the concept of taking ecology as the foundation, culture as the soul and industry as the basis for sustainable development.

Under this approach, the event seeks to strengthen the protection and living transmission of Minyak intangible cultural heritage, promote integrated development of agriculture, culture and tourism, and support the high-quality development of cultural tourism in Kangding.

By bringing together traditional customs, equestrian culture, storytelling, Gesar-related artistic expression, handicrafts and youth participation, the festival is being presented as an important platform linking the continuity of Minyak culture with modern development.