With China Tourist Visa Resumed,
Tibet Tours for All around the Globle are Available Right Now!

It is the best time to join our Tibet small group tour in 2024 at the best local price.
+ 86-28-81754631
TOP
listicon

How Lhasa People Celebrate Tibetan New Year

The Tibetan New Year 2013 is coming to its end. Let’s review how Lhasa people celebrate Tibetan New Year. In Lhasa, capital of Tibet, the festival usually lasts from December 29th of last year to the Jan. 15th of the new year. But the highlights of the holiday only lasts a week in urban areas of Lhasa and two weeks in the countryside. New clothes are made, houses and monasteries alike are cleaned from top to bottom, various shapes of kase (fried wheat twists) are made, and walls are painted.

Tibetan New Year
Qiema Box in front of Jokhang Temple
 
The family's best carpets and finest silver are also brought out. The Eight Auspicious Symbols, which appear as protective motifs throughout Tibetan-populated areas, are painted in strategic locations. Butter lamps are lit. Flowers are placed on altars. Piles of juniper, cedar, rhododendron, and other fragrant branches are prepared for burning as incense.
 
On Tibetan New Year's Eve, the family gathers around a steaming hot pot of dumpling soup called "Guthuk".
 
A dough effigy that represents the collective evil and ill of the past 12 months is made and put in. A woman carries the pot out of the house. A man follows her with a burning torch made of wheat stalks shouting: "Get out! Get out!"
 
Ghutuk
Guthuk
 
Then, the whole family moves to the middle of an intersection of roads or paths, where they throw away the remains of the Guthuk and the burning torch while the children set off firecrackers. So the city of Lhasa is illuminated by torches and resonant with the sound of firecrackers. This ceremony is conducted to get rid of all the negative forces at the end of the year so that the New Year will begin unencumbered.
 
On the morning of New Year's Day, the family rise early, put on their new clothes and finest jeweler, make offerings of barley flour mixed with butter and sugar at the family shrine, and then go to monasteries after breakfast. Tens of thousands of Tibetans swarm into the Jokhang, Drepung and Sera monasteries, and the Potala Palace, all in Lhasa, to worship Buddha. People add roasted highland barley, wheat, and juniper and cedar branches into the incense burners on Barkhor Square. Smoke fills the area.
 
Tibet new year
A Tibetan Family in Lhasa
 
On the second day of the Tibetan New Year, people begin visiting their relatives and friends. They feast on rich holiday foods, drink highland barley liquor, play mahjong, dice and card games, and sing and dance around huge bonfires at night. The revelry continues from three to five days.
 
Tibetan New Year in other regions of Tibet:
 
 
 
Related Tours: 
 
 
 
Master Catherine Jigme

About the Author - Master Catherine Jigme

With exceptional passion and outstanding leadership, Mrs. Catherine has dedicated herself to Tibet inbound tourism and China tour for 15 years. As one of the handful females who see great potential of Chinese inbound tourism, Catherine has made great contribution to promoting Tibet tourism and enhancing the employment of Tibetans and prosperity of local Tibetan community.

Over the years, she travelled overseas with Tibet Tourism Bureau many times to promote Tibet tourism. Currently, Catherine works as the marketing director of Tibet Vista, an opinion leader behind the whole team of Tibet Vista.

Email me about your travel idea

Have a Question? Ask below or email our travel experts directly at inquiry@tibettravel.org

Question Summary*

Details*

SUBMIT

Please fill in your contact information, we will send you the answer by email

SUBMITCancel

0 Comment ON "How Lhasa People Celebrate Tibetan New Year"

Check All Tibet Travel FAQs Here