The Story of Losar

The word losar is a Tibetan word which means New Year. The word is composed of two characters: lo and sar. Lo means ‘year’ and sar means ‘new’.

The celebration of Losar can be traced back to the Tibetan pre-Buddhist period (127 BC – 629 AD). At that time Tibetans were followers of the Bon religion, and held a spiritual ceremony every winter. During the ceremonies, people burnt a large quantity of incense to appease local spirits, deities, and protectors. Later this religious festival developed into an annual Buddhist festival.

Tibetan New Year in Shigatse Area

Tibetan New Year, also known as Peasants Day for Tibetans, is the most ceremonious festival in Shigatse, and it falls on the1st of the twelfth monthaccording to the Tibetan calendar. Shigatse is a rich and fertile agricultural area, where the local people created their own calendar 100 years ago to better arrange agronomic activities.

Customs

It is a tradition for people living in Shigatse and Lhasa to keep their yards and kitchens clean and tidy during Tibetan New Year, when the locals put up New Year paintings on the doors to add luster to the festival.

The most unforgettable experience of Tibetan New Year in Shigatse Area is eating gutu, a kind of dough with white stones, capsicums, wool, or charcoal in it, which has a rich symbolic meaning. If a man eats a gutu with wool in it, he is considered to be kind-hearted; if he eats one with a capsicum in it, he is thought to be harsh-tempered; if he eats one with a charcoal in it, he is deemed to be vicious; and if he eats a dough with white stones, he is regarded as unpopular among the crowd, so he will be forced to drink wine as a punishment.

The dishes served during Tibetan New Year are traditionally dominated bymutton, including dried mutton, boiled mutton, and roast mutton. Great changes have taken place in Shigatse’s food habits, and the dishes are richerthan ever before.

A number of cultural entertainment performances take place in Shigatze during Tibetan New Year, including horse-racing,arrow-shooting, singing, and dancing.

Tibetan New Year in Kongbo Area

As the first festival throughout the year, Tibetan New Year is the most ceremonial festival in Kongbo Area of Shigatze Prefecture, central south Tibet, in the Yarlung Tsangpo River Valley. It is a festival for families to get together, and it’s celebrated just as the Han ethnic people celebrate their Spring Festival.

The Origins of Kongbo New Year

The legend goes that Kongbo Area faced war during the early period of 13th century. When Kongbo tribe leaders called on all their people to prepare for the war, they didn’t know when they could return home owing to the long distance from their hometown to the battlefield. So they decided to celebrate the New Year on 1st of the tenth Tibetan month in advance before they went for battle.

The Kongbo Tribe won the victory over their enemies eventually owing to their great tenacity, since when it’s become a tradition for them to celebrate the New Year on the 1st of the tenth month according to Tibet calendar.

The “Feeding the Dog” Custom

There is a unique custom in the Kongbo New Year celebrations. On the evening of the last day of the year, each Kongbo family will put foods prepared for the New Year into a wood plate, then put the wood plate in the middle of the yard and let the dog eat those foods.

It is believed among the Kongbo people that the food the dog eats will predictsomething in the following year. For example, if the dog eats the cuo (a kind of food made of roasted barley flour), people believe there will be a good harvest in the following year. If the dog eats cheese or butter, people think that livestock breeding will be good. If the dog eats dried peach, people think that all the family will have a lucky year.