Losar preparations and celebrations
I have recently returned from my pilgrimage and I feel refreshed and ready for the new year. Although I did not find the mystical place I was searching for, I found much more important things within myself. The pilgrimage was a time to reflect on my attachments to life and work and to move forward in my focus on Buddhist principles such as compassion and wisdom. Lately I have been less interested in my work as a builder, which I do simply to support my family, and more interested in my studies to becoming a ritualist. The pilgrimage helped me a lot in locating my right mind and right intention which I have brought back and will put to use when learning and preforming rituals. I have noticed a change in myself lately and the New Year will be a perfect opportunity to leave behind my old self and over forward with my Buddhist practice.
It is February now and Losar, the Tibetan New Year, is coming up very soon. It is cold now in Tibet but the hard work of preparing for losar and the ensuing celebrations will be just the thing to warm us up! Losar is our most important holiday in Tibet. It begins on the first day of the first month, with 2 days of preparation preceding it and many days of celebration afterwards. Losar is a time of liminality for monks and laypeople alike as we rid ourselves of the bad deeds of last year and prepare ourselves for the coming year. We emerge from the celebrations feeling fresh and ready to begin again. The New Year is also a time to think about the creation of our world and monks will do dances and sing songs which recreate this time. The lion symbol is often seen during the New Year. The lion is an important symbol in Buddhism and Tibet and represents prosperity which we hope for in the coming year.
The New Year is a serious time for monks but also a time for celebration and laughter. To begin the preparations the monks will make contact with the gods and ask them to rid our village of evil, bad omens, big storms and other events which have plagued us during the past year. Protector deities will be worshipped by the monks. monks and nuns will also take this time to honour their teachers and to exchange greetings between teacher and student. I have been studying New Year rituals and observing as many as I am allowed to in the nunnery. During the Losar preparations firecrackers are set off to scare away evil spirits. A ritual dagger is also used in dances to rid the monks of the ignorance, attachment and other bad deeds. I was able to observe one of these dances with a monk, wearing a costume and robe, symbolically stabbing the air with the ritual dagger to drum music. Incense is burned in the monastery and nunnery before and during Losar celebrations. Decorations are put up around the temple and the auspicious signs are displayed. Losar also includes the cleansing and initiating of new monks, as a woman and a layperson I have not been allowed to observe this ceremony I have only read about it. During the last day of the year the monks will confront their own ignorance, pride and other evil deeds during the past year. All aspects of the past year must be dealt with before the monks can celebrate and enjoy the Losar.
To begin the Losar preparations the people of the village have been sewing Tibetan prayer flags which we will hang on New Year day and they will stay up all year and become tattered by the wind and rain. Everyone in the village will clean their houses extremely well, especially the kitchen where the celebratory feasts are made. After the cleaning we all begin to cook for the celebration. Many special dishes are cooked just for the New Year for instance a soup filled with small dumplings, meat and vegetables. We also cook Khapse which are deep friend pastries cooked for Losar. Beginning the new year with plates heaped with Khapse is a good omen for the year to come. There is also lots of doughnuts and beer! One very fun ritual is making dough balls filled with various items and handing them out to guests. The guest will open their dough ball and the item inside is representative of their character, for instance finding sheep’s wool means you are patient but finding coal means you have a black heart! The preparatory and celebratory days of Losar and a vacation and no one works at their jobs as we are all too busy preparing for the New Year. For the days before Losar we have been burning Juniper and preforming other purifying rituals to prepare ourselves for the start of a new year.
I have cleaned the outside of my house as well, washing the inside and outside walls until they were clean and white. As a builder I have to show that my house is in good repair! A clean house is a good way to start the year fresh and new. I have also been joining my fellow villagers in circumambulation of the temple and prostrating myself where appropriate. These two preparatory days and the actual new year are the most important days of the holiday but the celebrating will continue for fifteen days afterward with family visits, feasting and chang drinking.
Living high up on the Tibetan Plateau in such a small village can be isolating and sharing in these festivals makes us feel that we are part of a Tibetan and Buddhist community with shared values and traditions. Everyone in Tibet, even the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala, eats the same food for Losar. This is one reason why there is so much focus on preparing and eating the special Losar foods during this time. This year, like past year there is sadness mixed in to this holiday as we are still not free as a Tibetan people but are subject to Chinese occupation. While we celebrate the new year we pray that soon Tibet will be free. This year I heard of multiple Tibetan nuns and monks setting themselves on fire in order to make a statement about the Chinese occupation. I hope the new year will bring a new happy freedom where this self immolation will not be necessary. We also remember the suffering of our people during the beginning of the Chinese occupation and all of our fellow Tibetans who were hurt or killed trying to fight for freedom. Our new year is at the same time as the Chinese New Year but we have very different practices and rituals.
On the night before the new year we go to the temple to make offerings. On the morning of the new year everyone in the village awakens very early to greet the day. Everyone wears their best clothes which they have purchased on trips out of the village or which they have handmade. On my way back from the pilgrimage I purchased new clothes for myself, my husband and my children so we can start the new year in fresh new clothes. We go to the temple in the morning and make offerings of torma, dough baked into ritual shapes. On new year day the monks will do a dance representing the banishing of the past year’s evils and starting this new year fresh. Later in the day there will be a parade with monks in robes and sometimes costumes carrying flags and using noisemakers. Most of the village will come out to watch this. In the evening all of my entended family will gather at my parent’s house and we will have a huge feast with food that everyone will bring. We will eat lots of food and drink Chang, a common drink in Tibet, to stay warm. After days of serious religious preparations, the monks will also take this time to enjoy themselves and celebrate the new year. In the evenings there is something gambling among the relatives, even some of the younger members playing cards! Children will often receive a little but of spending money to line their pockets on these days of festivities. I know my kids are looking forward to this aspect of Losar! I will have to train them in Buddhist values of generosity and non-attachment to the material world in the coming year!
During the next fifteen days there will be continual celebrations. I will be taking my family to visit our family and friends and we will host people to our house. There will be lots of feasting and drinking beer and tea! Many Tibetan songs are sung during these feasts, Tibetans are known to be great singers! A few short weeks after Losar is Chunga Choepa, the Butter Lamp festival. We Tibetans have lots of celebrations to keep ourselves warm during the cold winters! Losar has taught me a lot about important Buddhist rituals and I hope it will be the fresh start I need to begin my serious training as a ritualist.
