Tibetan New Year
( 2005-10-27 )

On New Year's Day, Tibetans are supposed to offer ornaments called "Chemar" and chang beer to their households' deity and to the water dragon that takes care of their water supply. The chang served is strong enough to cause drunkenness. People visit their neighborhoods and exchange their Tashi Delek blessings in the first two days. Feasting is the theme during the session. They visit each other's feasts and have parties full of drinking and singing. The men don't miss an opportunity to enjoy gambling, with games of "Sho' (dice) and "Pakchen' (mah-jong).

On New Year's Day people spend time with their family or neighbors and then start paying visits to their relatives on the second day. Children also have a good time enjoying New Year's gifts of candies. On the third day, old prayer flags will be replaced with new ones. Other folk activities may be held in some areas to celebrate the events.

3. After the Day (fourth day of the first lunar month)

Starting with the third day of the first month, people visit friends and relatives. Banquets are be arranged. People salute each other with "Happy New year," "Tashi Delek."

This is the festival time, which lasts five days. There will be art performances as opera, Gouzhang roundelay, singing contests, sport events such as tug-of-war, rope skipping, the broad jump, the high jump, horse races, archery, wrestling, and Tibetan card games.

 The Story of Losar

"Happy Losar!"

Tibetans all over the world celebrate the Tibetan New Year. The word Losar is a Tibetan word for New Year. Lo means year and Sar means new.

The celebration of Losar can be traced back to the pre-Buddhist period in Tibet. During the period when Tibetans practiced the Bon religion, a spiritual ceremony was held each winter in which people offered large quantities of incense to appease the local spirits, deities and protectors. This religious festival later evolved into an annual Buddhist festival believed to have originated during the reign of Pude Gungyal, the ninth king of Tibet.

The festival is said to have begun when an old woman named Belma introduced the measurement of time based on the phases of the moon. This festival took place during the flowering of the apricot trees of the Lhokha Yarla Shampo region in autumn, and it may have been the first celebration of what has become the traditional farmers' festival. It was during this period that the arts of cultivation, irrigation, refining iron from ore and building bridges were first introduced in Tibet. The ceremonies that were instituted to celebrate these new capabilities can be recognized as precursors of the Losar festival. Later, when the rudiments of the science of astrology -- based on the five elements -- were introduced in Tibet, this farmer's festival became what we now call the Losar or New Year's festival.

The calendar is made up of 12 lunar months and Losar begins on the first day of the first month. In the monasteries, the celebrations for the Losar begin on the 29th day of the 12th month. That is the day before Tibetan New Year's Eve. On that day, the monasteries do a protectivedeities' puja (a special kind of ritual) and begin preparations for Losar celebrations.

 Tibetan New Year in different areas

Unlike the Han people, Tibetans living in different areas celebrate their New Year in varying ways and at different times.

1. Lhasa

In the capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, the holiday begins on the 29th day of the 12th Tibetan month.

During the holiday which usually lasts a week in urban areas of Lhasa and two weeks in the countryside, new clothes are made, houses and monasteries alike are cleaned from top to bottom, various shapes of kase (fried wheat twists) are made, and walls are painted.

The family's best carpets and finest silver are also brought out. The Eight Auspicious Symbols, which appear as protective motifs throughout Tibetan-populated areas, are painted in strategic locations. Butter lamps are lit. Flowers are placed on altars. Piles of juniper, cedar, rhododendron, and other fragrant branches are prepared for burning as incense.

On Tibetan New Year's Eve, the family gathers around a steaming hot pot of dumpling soup called "Guthuk".