Losar

The story behind the day

Losar is the Tibetan New Year; the name joins the Tibetan words for "year" and "new". It follows a lunar calendar and so falls on a different date each year, usually in February or March. The days around it are given to clearing out the old year, with monastic dances and a special soup at home. The Great Prayer Festival, Monlam, grows out of it. Tibetans, Sherpas and several other Himalayan peoples each keep a Losar of their own.^[1–6]

Origins

Tsongkhapa's 1409 founding of the MonlamIllustration · AI-generated

Losar is a festival of renewal, and Tibetan Buddhism has given it a Buddhist frame. Scholars of the Buddhist year note that the New Year festival took in the great miracle of Śrāvastī, and Tibetan teachers recall the first fifteen days of the new month as the time when the Buddha showed miraculous powers to subdue rival teachers. The Tibetan calendar counts months by the moon and years by the sun, and the year opens with a new moon in February or March.^{[7, 9]}

How it came to be

In exile Losar is usually kept for three days. In 1409 Lama Tsongkhapa founded the Great Prayer Festival, Monlam Chenmo, timed for the opening fortnight of the year, and the New Year and the prayer festival have run into one another ever since. Reference works differ on when Monlam begins: Himalayan Art Resources gives day three or four, while the Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices gives the fourth day.^{[5, 8, 10]}

How it is kept

cham dancers in masks at a monastery courtyard, butter sculptures — Cham dancers in masks at a monastery courtyard, butter sculpturesIllustration · AI-generated

Preparation comes first: households cleanse and wash so that the new year can begin clean, and families make guthuk, a special noodle soup, as the old year ends. Feasting follows. Families gather, and on the first day many go to monasteries to honour the lamas and seek their blessings. Monasteries perform cham dances at the turn of the year to clear obstacles and drive out the evil of the old year. Sherpas keep their Losar towards the end of February.^{[3–4, 11–14]}

Across traditions

There is no single Losar. Tibetan and Sherpa communities keep Gyalpo Losar, the royal Losar, in February or March. The Gurung keep a New Year that is really the Tibetan one, but in late December or early January, a different date from the Tibetan and Sherpa celebration. Differences in calculation produce these different Losars across the Himalayas.^{[2, 6, 15–16]}

Sources

Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.