Fragrance of Losar

Losar festival is celebrated to commemorate the advent of the Tibetan New Year. Losar (Lo means year and Sar means new) is the most important of all the socio-religious events of the Buddhists and is celebrated on the first day of the eleventh month of every Lunar year, which falls mainly in the month of February. 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.

The New Year festivities at all homes begins with the 'Metho' ceremony during Losar eve, when processions of people carrying flaming torches pass through the Monasteries, villages, markets and lanes, chanting prayers to chase away evil spirits believed to have accumulated during the year as a result of bad Karma (deeds).

An interesting display of fire and light is created by the whirling of the flaming torches which are then thrown away in a gesture to bid farewell to the old year and to welcome the New Year ahead. The New Year day itself starts with making offerings at the shrines of personal gods and clan ancestors and with greetings to family elders, relatives and friends, with the first day generally reserved for family and the second and third for friends and more distant relatives.

Tibetans also visit monasteries and make offerings at this time. This festival is full of music, dancing and merry-making. Losar is primarily a three-day festival. Even so, typical Tibetan families keep the festivities going for up to 15 days. Losar is celebrated by Buddhists in Tibet, India, Bhutan, and in Tibetan communities throughout the world.

Losar is marked with activities that symbolize purification, and welcoming in the new. The last day of the year is a time to clean and prepare for the approaching New Year. During 'Gutor' the entire neighborhood is cleaned, and everyone whitewashes and cleans their houses to prepare for the New Year. As the big day approaches, any or all of the eight auspicious symbols are drawn on the kitchen wall with phye mar.

The mouths of household vessels such as water cans, clay pots and so forth, are tied with white woolen scarves, and window and door curtains are replaced. A small amount of dirt is collected, which will later be thrown onto a place where spirits are thought to dwell. Homeowners race through their houses shooting off guns or firecrackers to drive out evil.

Monastaries begin their celebrations the day before Tibetan New Year's Eve by conducting a protector deities' ritual (puja). On the last day of the old year, decorations are put up and elaborate offerings made called "Lama Losar".

Preparations for Losar basically consist of collecting fresh roasted barley flour for phye mar (sweetened barley flour symbolizing good wishes), gro ma (a small dried sweet potato) bras sil (sweet rice), lo phud (a young sprout of wheat or barley symbolizing the birth of the new year), chang (barley beer), khab se (fried biscuits), tea, butter, sheep’s heads, butter lamps, of various sizes, and fruits and sweets. Locally produced foodstuffs are preferable.

A complete set of these seasonal delicacies is also required for arrangement on the altar. These are prepared in huge quantities days, weeks, or even months before Losar, according to the need of the household; most families, however, prepare them one day before Losar. Khab se and chang together form the basic medium of exchanging greetings.

New clothing may be prepared, especially for children, but most adults wear their finest set of old clothing; often, a person will own only one such set of fine clothing, which they usually keep locked in a trunk until an appropriate event, such as Losar or the marriage of their relatives.

Lines are laid down in white said along the sides of the path from the gate to the door, and in the center of the path are drawn symbols such as a swastika, which symbolizes indestructible good fortune, or a conch, which symbolizes the flourishing of the Dharma.

On the first day, in the early dawn, the housewife of the family runs to collect the year’s first bucket of water. She burns incense at the water source, ties a scarf around the tap, and sets out an offering of the first portionphye mar and chang to appease the nagas (subterranean serpent beings) and spirits. On reaching home, she serves boiled chang porridge while awakening every member of the family, bidding them “Tashi Delek.” 

Then all, now quite awake after relishing the chang porridge (and some perhaps already a bit soused), attire themselves in their best costumes. After performing their devotions before the altar by making prostrations, reciting prayers, lighting lamps and the like, they take their seats, lined up according to seniority within the household. The housewife then serves phye mar, chang phud and sweet rice, followed by tea, sweet soup, boiledchang porridge, and a set of khab se called dkar spro.

When this formal family ceremony is over, the household members run off to their next door neighbors’ houses, chewing phye mar and chang phud while shouting “Tashi Delek!” Children especially love to fill their pockets with sweets and show off their new outfits. On this day people neither socialize extensively, nor spend money freely, for it is believed (with or without reason) that if anyone were to do so, the fortunes of their household would diminish.

From the second day of Losar onwards, people visit each others’ houses, gamble, play dice, cards, dance and sing songs. If the lunar calendar predicts that the second day will be favorable, people raise prayer flags, both horizontally and vertically, on their roofs. And while on the roof, they also offer incense, sending great pillars of smoke rising into the sky.

This ceremony is primarily, a ritual of appeasement offered in honor of their deities of the home (skye lha); it is also a rite to increase the family’s luck and fortune, as well as to placate gods, goddesses, mountain dwelling spirits (btsan), local spirits (yul lha) and nagas.

This incense offering ceremony is also accompanied by an offering of black tea to the gods and goddesses of the home and the locality; it concludes with the shouting of “Ki Ki So So Lha Gyal Lo!” (“May the gods on the side of virtue be victorious!”) three times while holding tsampa between the thumb and the tips of the fingers of one’s right hand.

One then throws the tsampa toward the sky, filling the air with a fine mist of powder. When the incense burning and prayer flag ceremony is held in public, the scene is even more lively and lovely. People also make offerings to the moon for happy and prosperous life. At night, they illuminate the house with oil lamps.

In private homes, whether of high or low social status, aristocratic or working class, everyone enjoys the festivities, ongoing rituals and pageants of the Losar festival, while exchanging hospitality and sharing conviviality. The Losar merrymaking lasts for at least a week, and in some places even longer. Some people even get married during Losar to make things especially festive!

Some playful and naughty people jubilantly polish others’ faces with tsampa to tease them; people of the opposite sex are a favorite target. They also participate in various religious ceremonies during the day. The most popular is the play in which the people perform masked dances. Crackers are burnt to light the darkness of the New Year and to scare off all the evil spirits. It symbolizes victory of good over bad.

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