Tibetan New Year

 New Year Activities

1. Day before New Year's Eve (29th day of the 12th lunar month)

Usually, explanations of Tibetan festivals start with looking at the New Year's Day celebrations. However, the year's end is also of special importance and Tibetans observe "Gutor" while they are busy preparing for New Year's Day.

Starting on the 23rd day of the 12th month, people prepare for the most important festival of the year. Men purchase clothes, sugar, barley beer, rice, flour, and tea. Women make tsamba, butter, cakes, and fry foods, while wearing their hair in plaited braids. The feasts include a substantial amount of "Dresi," a sweet buttered rice dish with raisins; "Droma", which is rice boiled with small potatoes, various meats, fruits, breads, chang[what is chang?], butter tea, among other foods. "Kapse," a fried sweet that comes in different shapes and forms, are a must. Tibetans are supposed to see in the New Year with these sweets piled high on their trays.

On the 29th or 30th, herdsman will use flour to paint the "eight auspicious emblems" and use plasters to draw signs for good luck. Monasteries spread foods for the hungry ghosts and chase away demons.

2. On the New Year: (First through thirdday of the First lunar month)

Known as Losar, the Tibetan New Year is the most popular festival in Tibet. In ancient times when the peach tree was in blossom, it was considered as the starting of a new year. Since the systematization of the Tibetan calendar in 1027 AD, the first day of the first Tibetan month became fixed as the new year. It is an occasion when Tibetan families reunite and expect a better year ahead.

Specially made offerings are presented at family shrines; doors are painted with religious symbols; residences are cleaned and milk curd is mixed with barley flour to make curd-pastries. On New Year's Eve, Tibetan families eat "Guthuk," a soup with dumplings. It is made of nine different ingredients, including dried cheese and various grains. Dough balls are also given out with various ingredients hidden in them such as chilies, salt, wool, rice and coal. The ingredients one finds hidden in one's dough ball are supposed to be a lighthearted comment on one's character. If one finds chilies in the dough, it means that one has a glib tongue; salt is a good sign and means that one is all right; wool means one is kind and patient; a white stone foretells a long life; and coal means one has a "black heart".

After the dinner it is the Festival of Banishing Evil Sprits. Torches are lit and people run around with a doll representing a fierce god, setting off bundles of straw and hand-held fire crackers, yelling as they throw rubbish on the streets to get rid of evil spirits from their houses.

The New Year is coming! Before dawn on New Year's Day, housewives fetch their first buckets of water (river water before the disappearing of stars) in the new year home and prepare breakfast, before waking everybody. People dress in their best, and take seats according to their age. The eldest will toss a little bit of tsamba to the sky to salute Buddha and the bodhisattva. Then, the eldest will bless the junior one with "Tashi Delek" (good luck and all wishes fulfilled). Young people wear chubas and pay their first visit of the year to a temple with their family early in the morning, and pray for a healthy and fortunate life. "Hopefully, we will gather together next year to enjoy again," they say.

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".

A dough effigy that represents the collective evil and ill will of the past 12 months is made and put in on top of everything else. A woman carries the pot out of the house. A man follows her with a burning torch made of wheat stalks shouting: "Get out! Get out!"

Then, the whole family moves to the middle of an intersection of roads or paths, where they throw away the remains of the Guthuk and the burning torch while the children set off firecrackers. So the city of Lhasa is illuminated by torches and resonant with the sound of firecrackers. This ceremony is conducted to get rid of all the negative forces at the end of the year so that the New Year will begin unencumbered.

On the morning of New Year's Day, the family rise early, put on their new clothes and finest jeweler, make offerings of barley flour mixed with butter and sugar at the family shrine, and then go to monasteries after breakfast. Tens of thousands of Tibetans swarm into the Jokhang, Zhaibung and Sera monasteries, and the Potala Palace, all in Lhasa, to worship Buddha. People add roasted highland barley, wheat, and juniper and cedar branches into the incense burners on Barkhor Square. Smoke fills the area.

On the second day of the Tibetan New Year, people begin visiting their relatives and friends. They feast on rich holiday foods, drink highland barley liquor, play mahjong, dice and card games, and sing and dance around huge bonfires at night. The revelry continues from three to five days.

2. Xigaze region

Like their peers in Lhasa, Tibetans in Xigaze Prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region launch their Tibet Lunar New Year holiday on December 29th of the Tibetan calendar.

On that afternoon, local Tibetan men wash their hair after cleaning their houses and painting the Eight Auspicious Symbols on the walls. It is said that this will help the men have black and shiny hair and bring good luck to the family. Women cannot wash their hair that afternoon because it is believed it would have the opposite effect.

On New Year's Eve, the same ceremony to drive out evil spirits is carried out in every family. Instead of throwing away the remains of the Guthuk and the burning torch, the men of the family climb onto a hill far from the house and burn a boiled sheep head until black, which will be offered at the family shrine as a sacrifice.

The young men and women get up around dawn on New Year's Day. Dressed in their festive best, some of them climb onto hills to erect new prayer flags for the village.

Prayer flags are square pieces of fabric with prayers printed on them, strung together and hung from a large timber flagpole. Each flutter of a flag in the wind is another recitation of the prayer printed on it, for the benefit of the community.

The others go to streams or wells for "new water."

Then the family will have lunch at which they share a sheep's head, sausages and wheat porridge, and drink highland barley liquor on the first day of the first Tibetan month.

On the second day of the new year, all families gather in their neighborhood squares to burn juniper branches and offer highly alcoholic barley liquor and snacks as sacrifice to the area's deity of the land and protector deities.

Starting on the third day of the New Year, banquets for friends and relatives are held one after another.

3. Amdo region

Amdo region refers to Tibetan areas in Qinghai, southwestern Gansu and northwestern Sichuan provinces. Most of the region is covered with vast grasslands. Tibetans living there are mainly nomads.

For the Amdo Tibetan nomads, the first thing to be done on the morning of the Tibetan New Year is always to climb to the top of a hill near their settlement and try to be the first person to burn juniper branches to worship the local protector deities.

It is a great honor to be the first to burn juniper branches, for he or she has the right to sound the white conch to inform the others living around the hill, and the first smoke can be seen for a great distance. Other people at the top of the hill will then add more juniper and cedar branches to the fire and offer liquor and highland barley flour to the local protector deities.

Different from Lhasa and Xigaze, house cleaning and water drawing are prohibited on New Year's Day in many areas of Amdo region.

In some Amdo areas, men get up early in the morning of New Year's Day and run toward the cow or sheep sheds to see in which direction the animals are pointing while they sleep. Wherever their heads point, whether east, south, west or north, that direction will have auspicious conditions in the New Year. Cows and sheep will be painted with three colors or tied with five-color cloth stripes, and made to move in that direction for some distance to ensure good luck.

4. Nyingchi region

In this eastern Tibet prefecture, the residents celebrate the Tibetan New Year on the first day of the 10th Tibetan lunar month.

The special local custom began in 1904. That year, news came to Nyingchi that the invading British troops were arriving. Local Tibetan men in Nyingchi Prefecture began preparing to join the fight against the British invaders to defend their home villages. In order not to miss the new year celebrations, the local people decided to hold the festival events before the men left for the battlefield.

This happened on the first day of the 10th Tibetan month, and the tradition has been handed down until this day.

The locals are fond of dogs, as the region boasts dense forests and dogs are not only house guardss, but also hunting helpers. During the New Year's Eve, dogs are invited to share food with their masters. Traditionally, the food the dogs choose to eat will be abundant in the coming year.

So, if people miss the chance of enjoying the Tibetan New Year in Nyingchi in the 10th Tibetan Month, they still have another chance to enjoy it in other parts of Tibet.

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