Losar

(लोसर)

Literal Meaning

New year

Etymology & Sanskrit Root

Tibetan lo gsar: lo, year; gsar, new.

Spiritual Insight & Context

The Tibetan New Year, kept from the first day of the first Tibetan month, usually in February or March, with the main days the first three and festivities for fifteen.

Where Losar Comes Up

Losar, the Tibetan New Year

The three-day Tibetan New Year of purification, renewal, and monastery ceremony, rooted in pre-Buddhist Bon tradition and reshaped over centuries into a central festival of Himalayan Buddhism.

Topics

Losar Customs: How the Tibetan New Year Is Kept

How Losar, the Tibetan New Year, is kept: Gutor cleaning, guthuk soup, altar offerings, prayer flags and Chotrul Duchen, and how customs differ by region.

Topics