The day-long prayer festival began at 8.30 a.m. with a two-hour discourse delivered by His Holiness The Dalai Lama and featured monks chanting Buddhist prayers. The evening saw the well-known classical singer Shubha Mudgal's stirring recital of spiritual music, and a ceremonial lighting of diyas The ceremony was organised by the Tibet House which has been conducting a `Ceremony of Remembrance' every year since 1993 commemorating the installation of Buddha's statue at the park. One such celebration in the past had presented the dance of Himalayas which was widely acclaimed.

The prayers on the occasion were led by a choir of monks from the Drepung monastery in Karnataka. The monks from the same monastery have been conducting the prayers at the Lhasa festival since the festival's inception in the 14th century by Lama Tson-gkhapa, the founder of the Gelugupa tradition.

The Great Prayer Festival of Lhasa commemorates the miraculous deeds performed by Shakyamuni Buddha at Sravasti. In Tibet, before the Chinese take over, thousands of monks would gather at the main temple of Lhasa for prayers. This prayer was traditionally conducted in the first month of the Tibetan lunar calendar, that is the month of February/March. Now, the tradition continues in all the monasteries in India.