Happy Losar 2015, Year of the Sheep

My favourite time of year just passed, Losar, the New Year! It was a fun time with lots of celebrations and rituals for health and prosperity in the New Year. This is my favourite time of year because it is a chance for a fresh start and to make new plans. I love the time we get to spend with family, friends, and the village. Everyone is in good spirits and we can focus on health, good intentions, and prosperity for the year ahead. We are ushering in the Year of the Sheep. I think this will be a good year because the Sheep is compassionate and kind. Last year was the Year of the Horse, which I found to be a bit hectic. It took a while for life to get back to normal after the hail storm. I’m looking forward to a calmer year.

Before the 15 day celebration I began by cleaning my house completely, top to bottom. I swept away all dust and dirt from every corner of my house, imagining I was clearing negative thoughts and obstacles from my mind. I also cleaned the area outside my house. After that I put a fresh coat of paint on the inside and outside my house. It looks wonderful! I am grateful for this opportunity to clean and refresh my house as I prepare for the turning of a new year. I’ve been very busy lately with building projects, and have been neglecting my own house. I've refreshed my house not only to remove obstacles, but also so it looks good when family visit through the New Year celebrations. I had a little extra money this year so I was able to buy new clothes and a new rug for my house. These new things also symbolize a fresh start and hope for a good year coming.

The next step of preparations is a family baking day. This is my mother’s favourite part because it brings the whole family together. My father and I try to help bake, but we never get it right! We mostly sit in the kitchen with my mother, telling stories and singing songs, and helping where we can without getting in her way. This year she made hundreds of cookies in a twist shape! I lost count! Her khapse are the best. We ate some, and will save some for when family and friends visit. She also made several torma with a rams head cookie cutter I bought her, and we will use these as offerings at the monastery.

On the night before Losar my family gathered together to make and eat guthuk, a soup made with special dumplings that have objects embedded inside them. You don’t eat those dumplings, but open them up to see what the object is. Every object has a meaning, some positive, some negative, and it is said that you embody the qualities of the object you get for the year. This is one of my favourite part of Losar because everyone laughs and we tease each other for the objects we find in the dumplings. This year my dumpling had a piece of wool in it, meaning I am kind hearted. I like this, and I think it is an auspicious omen for the coming year since it is the wool of the sheep! My mother got a chilli pepper, meaning she has a sharp tongue! My father and I laughed and laughed about this because she really does have a sharp tongue! She always tells people what she thinks honestly without holding back, and sometimes people don’t like what she has to say, even though she is often right. She is very direct! And she has a habit of telling crass jokes! The chilli pepper fits her perfectly. One time when I was in Lhasa trading for construction materials I met a traveller who had come from Ireland, and we were talking about family rituals and celebrations and she told me culture has a similar tradition where they bake objects that have symbolic meaning into bread. They open up the bread and find the object and it has meaning for them, just like us! How interesting that we can share a tradition being thousands of kilometers apart!

After we ate the guthuk we went to the monastery to watch cham dances. I love the colourful masks and costumes, and the intricate dance. We watch the dances so that after death when we enter bardo we will recognize the deities we will encounter and help us toward rebirth. Then we watched a fire puja in the courtyard of the monastery aimed at removing obstacles and imagining them burned away in a fire. We imagine the obstacles and unwholesome actions of ourselves and of the whole village.

I carved a sheep’s head from a block of wood I’d been saving for something special. Before Buddhism came to Tibet live sheep were offered as a sacrifice, but now it is more humane and we offer representations of animals to prevent the taking of a life unnecessarily. I painted the sheep’s head ornately, using vivid reds, blues, and yellows. It is a fine offering for the Year of the Wood Sheep.

On the first day of the New Year I woke up before sunrise and went to a local river to fetch water to bring to my parent’s house. With this water we made an offering to the Buddha, and made tea. We ate breakfast, and my father said blessings for each of us. Then we went to visit everyone in the village, house by house, while my mother stayed home to receive guests. It was so much fun! We passed people on the streets and paths and everyone was in good spirits, laughing and hugging. It was nice to see everyone’s house clean and fresh, and I knew they felt as renewed as I did, so we celebrated that together. I ate so much food I thought I would explode. At the end of the day I returned home and fell immediately asleep, exhausted from walking the whole village, eating, drinking, laughing, and singing. What a day.

On the second and third day I hung prayer flags inside and outside my house. The whole village is full of colourful flags. I walked down to the cairn I was involved in rebuilding to make an offering of cookies and beer to the protector deity. Others in the village had the same idea, and there were prayer flags strung up in trees and around the cairn.

I spend the remaining days of Losar visiting with family and friends. On the 8th day I hosted my parents and several friends from the village. I made shamey mothuk, a delicious soup made with vegetarian dumplings. Normally I would make it with meat dumplings, but some of my friends in the village are vegetarian, and I wanted to make sure they would have something to eat when they came to visit. I also served chang, and everyone got a little drunk! After eating we sang, told stories, and danced late into the night. We talked about what it was like when the Chinese occupiers forbade Tibet from celebrating our cultural festivals and holidays. I remember as a child my parents would celebrate in secret by making guthuk and cleaning and painting the house, but it was not like it is now, with singing, dancing, prayer flags draped everywhere, and everyone in the village visiting with other people. We are very fortunate. Then we ate and drank some more! I enjoyed being a host, filling everyone full of food and drink.

The last day of celebrations signifies the Buddha’s triumph when he the taught the dharma to non-believers. We went to the temple again to make offerings of torma, to chant, and to watch more dharma dances. The colours of the costumes were beautiful! Bright yellows, and reds, with accents of gold and blue. I love the clanging sound of the cymbals and the way the dancers move both fluidly and in jolts. The rhythmic dancing mixed with the deep sound of the horns and the metallic sounds of the cymbals made me feel very calm, almost as if in a trance. My family and I left the monastery and went back to my parent’s house. We ate soup, some left over khapse, and drank chang. We sang together about the new chances a new year can bring. The sounds of our singing filled their house with joy and love and light.