Ringing in the New Year, Tibetan-style

At 2.7 million people, Tibet is the most sparsely populated of any province or autonomous region belonging to China.

About 93 percent are ethnic Tibetans. Significant populations of people of Tibetan ethnic group also reside in Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. Tibetans in Tibet and all over the world celebrate Tibetan New Year, or Losar, on the first day of the Tibetan calendar. This year, the celebration falls on February 9, coincidently the same day as the Chinese Spring Festival.

"The dates for Tibetan New Year and Chinese New Year can fall in four different ways: The same day, a one-day difference, a one-month difference, or a one-month-plus-one-day difference," says Professor Sonam Doje, director of the China Tibetology Publishing House.

The first year of the Tibetan calendar is AD 1027, Ghang Tso, assistant professor of the Central Minority University, told the Entering Tibet webpage on the CCTV website. "Before, most festivals were connected with religion. But now it has changed," Ghang says. "For instance, Saga Zlaba Festival is related with Sakyamuni's birth, entering into monkhood, and passing away. Most celebrations are religious, but some not, such as horse racing and archery. Some religious customs have changed into folk customs, which will develop toward a modern culture."

On the 29th day of the last month of the Tibetan year, a festival called dgu thug is held in Lhasa. Everyone whitewashes and cleans their houses, especially the kitchens. Families cook special noodles: dgu thug.

"Dgu thug is made of nine different ingredients, including dried cheese, peas, wheat, sweet potatoes, vermicelli, highland barley, meat and other grains," says Doje. "Inside the bigger dough balls [which no one eats], there are different fillings, such as wool, pepper, salt, stone and charcoal. Before eating dgu thug, the family soaks tsampa (roasted highland barley flour) with water, rolls it into a small ball and touches it on their clothes, symbolizing the removal of evil and diseases."

The item found inside a person's dough ball comments on that person's character. If a person finds pepper in his dough, it means he is talkative and direct; wool means one is good-hearted and pure; stone means one has a hard heart; salt means one is lazy; and charcoal means one is evil and black-hearted. "Family members always laugh and tease each other. It's all in good fun," says Doje.

After the meal, the leftover dgu thug is placed in a broken old pottery pot. The hostess takes the pot outside the house, and the host goes to each room shaking burning wheat straws while shouting to drive away evil apparitions. In the meantime, the hostess takes the pot away from the house and cannot turn her head to look back until she throws the pot away at the first intersection she comes across. The other family members light fireworks in the yard.

The last day of the old year is spent decorating and cleaning the houses and placing offerings in shrines for followers of Buddhism. "We change old thangkas (colorful cloths) for new ones and present new kha-btags to the Buddha," says Doje. Kha-btags are the ribbons that Tibetans use to show their respect for their gods or their hospitality to guests. The color and length vary according to the receiver, but for Buddha, they are mostly long white narrow flags.

"We decorate our rooms' walls with white flour and fortunate patterns such as the scorpion, which represents the dragon," says Doje. "Also, old kha gdan, a kind of Tibetan carpet, are replaced with new ones." In the evening, people display flour cakes, go log (sheep's skulls) and highland barley sprouts.

Before sunrise on the morning of the first day of the New Year, the hostess gets up and stews highland barley alcohol with brown sugar, milk and tsampa. Every person has to drink a bowl. Then the hostess goes out to get the first bucket of water. People dress up and bless each other.

"Immediately after daybreak, we go to neighbors with grosophyemar, a basket-like New Year's decoration made with highland barley sprouts, rtse sgro (dyed wooden boards) and dyed wheat head and highland barley alcohol and toast to each other," says Doje. After paying visits to neighbors, people go home and don't go out again that day.

"There are three taboos on the New Year day," says Doje, "which are no visitors (just a quick call is allowed), no eating meat and no arguments." From the second day of the New Year, people start to visit relatives and friends, singing and dancing till the 15th day of the first month: The Butter Festival.

Tibetans living in different areas in Tibet have different local customs, and the time of celebration even varies. While Tibetans in the Gzhi-ska-rtse area start celebrating New Year on the first day of the last month, those in the Nying khri area begin festivities on the first day of the tenth month.

Customs and etiquette differ from Lhasa in Gzhi-ska-rtse. For example, by washing his hair on the second-to-last day of the old year, a man can improve his lot at work and enhance the life of his family. His hair will also grow thick and lush. Women washing their hair on the same day is considered very unlucky.

Every family in the Chab mdo area must stew a bull or sheep's head. In the Nying khri area, New Year celebrations begin on the first day of the 10th month of the Tibetan calendar. This custom dates back more than 1,000 years. On the evening of the 29th day of the ninth month, people hold high burning torches, go to each room of their home, throw big black-and-white stones at the corners and shout: "Evil spirits begone!"

On the last day of the ninth month, people display snacks on wooden plates or boards and invite their dogs to eat whatever they want. They repeat "Comfortable dog, happy dog, please eat your meal!" three times. After the dogs are full, people devour flour balls made of Tibet butter, milk, white sugar and brown sugar. On the third day of the tenth month, they make sacrificial offerings to the harvest goddess in the family's best field.

"For us Tibetans who are not living in Tibet, but in Beijing, we still celebrate Tibetan New Year the same way as in Tibet. For the food we cannot buy in Beijing, we just buy some substitutes," says Doje.

"Generally, Tibetans living in pastoral areas don't celebrate Chinese Spring Festival," Ghang Tso told CCTV, "but Tibetans working with Han people celebrate together and enjoy the national holiday."

Other important Festivals in Tibet:

1) Zhoston Festival (xuedun jie): From the 30th day of the sixth month to the seventh day of the seventh month in the Tibetan calendar. This yogurt banquet festival is also known as the Tibetan Opera Festival. Tibetan Buddhism's Yellow Sect (Gelugpa) founder Tsongkhapa ruled that believers stay indoors during summer to cultivate themselves. The idea is to avoid the careless killing of certain creatures which tend to more active in summer. When believers can finally go outdoors, local people serve them yogurt and there is a general celebration. During the mid-17th century, the Fifth Dalai Lama added an opera performance to this festival. Tibetan opera troupes perform in Norbu Glingka, the Dalai Lama's summer palace.



2) Horse Racing Festival (saima jie): August. There are many horse festivals in Tibet, but the horse racing, yak racing, archery, horsemanship and commodity fair makes Nagqu arguably the greatest. As August is the golden season for Northern Tibet's vast plains, herdsmen ride into Nagqu sporting colorful attire, carrying tents and saleable commodities. Soon there's a city of tents and much merriment to be had.



3) Saga Zlaba Festival (sagadawa jie): On the 15th day of the fourth month of the Tibetan calendar. Legend has it Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, was born, entered into monkhood, and passed away on this day. Buddhist followers take ritual walks, worship Buddha, give alms to lamas and abstain from eating meat.



4) Ongskor Festival (Bumper Harvest Festival) (wangguo jie): The date is not fixed. This festival is usually celebrated when the crops are ripe, lasting for three to five days. People dress up, write colorful prayer flags and carry around a "harvest tower" of barley ears and stalks. They sing and dance, beat drums and gongs and walk around the fields. On this day, Tibetan also enjoy horse racing. Then they begin the intense autumn harvest.

Source: that's China
By Priscilla Jiao