Losar - Buddhist festivals - Tibetan New Year

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Losar festival is celebrated to commemorate the advent of new year. It is the Ladakhi or Tibetan new year. The festival is celebrated for 2 weeks during the month of December and january as per the lunar calendar. The festival is marked with ancient rituals,the stage fights between good & evil, chanting and passing through the crowds with fire torches. The dance of the Ibex deer and the dramatic battles between the King & his ministers add to the joyous atmosphere. This festival is full of music, dancing and merry-making.

Origin, Significance and Legends

Kings hate to miss new year parties, too. Singme Namgyar, king of Sikkim, brought the Buddhist New Year celebrations forward by a month because he was going to be out at war on New Year's day!

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Even today, Sonam Losar, the Buddhist New Year festival in Sikkim, begins a month before the Buddhist New Year. Tibetans and other Buddhists in India kick off Losar festivities a month later - a week before new year's day, in fact.

For all Buddhists, Losar is a sacred time and a time for feasting and celebration. It is a time to be with the family, and a time to ensure that bad omens are not carried into the new year.

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Rituals

Homes are painted, new clothes are stitched, debts and quarrels are resolved, good food is cooked, and intoxicants are drunk in the run-up to New Year's day. Homes are decorated with flour paintings of the sun and moon, and small lamps illuminate the house at night.

The first few days of festivities are exclusively family affairs, as are the first days of the new year. Later, the festivities roll out onto the streets. Tab-zan, a special bread, features in the family meals.

In Sikkim, on the fifth day of Losar, a special broth of boiled barley grains, peas and the stomach of a sheep, is prepared. Dib rug, a dish made by stuffing sheep intestines with barley dough kneaded in sheep blood, is another speciality during Losar.

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In the night, the swishing sound of burning torches can be heard around a Buddhist home, as menfolk whirl flaming torches over their heads in an effort to ward off evil spirits, sickness, dog bites and other misfortunes from striking their family in the new year.

Since the new year is on the cards, Buddhist families take special care to ensure that positive things happen all the time. So, the ceremonies are umpteen.

In Sikkim, a male and female goat are sacrificed after a purification ceremony in which the animals are washed, their ears are stitched with ribbon, their bodies are smeared red, and they are made to drink the local brew, chang.

In another ceremony named Mesol, the family visit the resting places of their ancestors, light a lamp, and offer food and drinks. The family then eat the food, which is considered blessed. In some homes, the men race through the house firing guns or crackers. Costume dramas are performed. Archery contests and horse races are held. And everywhere, chang flows.

On the morning of the new year, families rise before dawn, bathe, put on new clothes and fine jewellery. Offerings of barley flour mixed with butter and sugar and yogurt are then made at the family shrine. This represents the hope for a good grain harvest. After a visit to local monasteries, the family settles down to feasting and drinking.

Celebrated In

Losar is celebrated as Sonam Losar in Sikkim, and also elsewhere in India by Buddhists.

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