A smaller scale version of the Yushu festival in Yushu Town was recently held.

This is the first time the Yushu festival has been held since 2009. In April last year a terrible earthquake devastated Yushu Town, over 10% of the population was killed and since then every building has been torn down. Everyone lives in tents while the Chinese government slowly gets about to reconstruction.

Yushu Town's Horse Racing Festival before the earthquake had been the biggest nomad horse festival in Tibet, and probably the best place to go and see a living tradition of bead and jewelry wearing, that has survived in a manner similar to how it was before the Chinese takeover.

By comparison, this year's festival appears to have been relatively low-key, unadvertised to tourists, and aimed more towards commemorating the earthquake, raising local morale and trying to get back to normality. Here are some pictures of nomad men and women wearing their traditional costumes at the event, please click the links to see the Chinese blogs where I found these.

Ladies at the festival
More ladies at the festival

Also there are many small festivals that are organised by nomads elsewhere in the vast countryside of Yushu prefecture:

Small nomadic festival held in 2010 near Yushu
Another event around Yushu in 2009
Men's hair ornaments at small nomadic festival in 2009
Local Womens' Headdresses at the same festival