Detailed Information about Losar Festival & Its Importance

India can be described to be a multi religion paradise of people where almost most of the major religions of the world are found to coexist in full harmony and peace. Here each community has been learning the traditions and the practices of the other to bring out a totally new India which is build up on the foundations offered by the ancient knowledge of the different religions. Here each community takes pride and freedom to express their thoughts and the practices. There is a large community of the Tibetans residing in India than any other country, after china. They have been leading a successful life in the Indian subcontinent after they fled from Tibet due to disturbance in their native country to take refuge in India.

Today the Tibetans have been residing in the Himalayan region of the northern parts of Indian and every year Losar is celebrated in a grand way as it marks the Tibetan New Year. It is considered the pious and the greatest of all the Buddhist festivals. It falls mostly during the months of January or February and the celebrations continue up to 2 weeks in a row. The celebrations are very much grand and the people come out to the streets in their traditional Tibetan dresses and dances and plays are performed as the mob processions move on the road. The famous yak dance in the background of the Tibetan music of the dungchen- a long wind instrument, the gyaling- a short trumpet like instrument, silnyen, the rolmo etc. that give a very strong sensation of the ancient Buddhist culture.

Losar times are the family reunion times and all the bitterness in the family and the friends circles are forgotten as they step into a new year full of new hopes and new energies. The people greet each other invite the guests to their homes and plenty of feasts go around during this time. The houses are decorated, cleaned and painted and the whole ambience is a full of good omens as the Tibetan society step in to a new year. The people buy new clothes and the prayer halls are illuminated with hundreds of the small lamps of "ghee" or butter. The special bread called "Tab-zan", the Dib rug; that is a type of sausage prepared by kneading the dough in the blood of the sheep and there is another dish that is made from the sheep stomach boiled with peas and barley grains etc.

In Buddhism the simplicity of the religion can be seen and the Tibetan people still are continuing the age old traditions and with very much fidelity and not much change is seen in the practices in here. The warding off of the evils by making swishing sounds and the burning torches into the Losar nights can be seen. The festival is a time when the animals are sacrifices after a purification ceremony. According to the Tibetan way the animals are killed by constricting the neck that chocks the breath as it leads to a less painful death of the animal.

The monasteries remain filled with the chants of the Buddhist mantras that give very strong divine presence.