For Tibetans, lo-sar (Tib., new year) is the most important time of year.   From the American point of view, it would be equated to a huge birthday party and Christmas, all in one…that’s because everyone turns a year older on New Year.  Anyen Rinpoche, of course, loves his birthday (which he’s started to celebrate since coming to America) and takes delight in the fact that it changes dates every year–since his birthday is not a fixed day according to the Western calendar, but takes place on the lunar calendar.  Now Rinpoche celebrates his birthday on his citizenship day!  But lo-sar is even better, because its a time for families to get together, to eat delicious (and massive) amounts of food, and, of course, to practice dharma.

I asked Anyen Rinpoche to tell us all a Losar story…Here goes:

“At the end of each year, before losar begins, we gather together for drubchens (Tib., great accomplishment) where we practice according to our lineage.  At my gompa (Tib., monastery), we practice Vajrakilaya, Mahakala and Khagyed.   This is to benefit the entire community’s worldly and spiritual life for the coming year.   We exhaust the previous year’s negative karma and obstacles.   At that time, everyone is focusing on practice and there is actually a tangible feeling of being blessed.  Usually, its the monks who are doing the serious drubchen practice, while the lay people are reciting mantras.

On the evening of the 29th day of the lunar calendar, we go home to our families and make “gutik” (Tib., the thukpa or soup of the 29th).   We make dumplings, but instead of putting the customary meat inside, we add other things that act as a prophecy to reveal things about our fellow family members.  We might put in salt, red pepper, perhaps a character written on paper, charcoal, candy, grass, snake or a white stone.   For example, if you got a snake-filled dumpling, this would be a sign that you are an extremely short-tempered person.   If you were served a candy-filled dumpling, it would show you are a sweet-talker who pretends to like everyone.  If you ate a grass-filled dumpling, it would show you are stingy and greedy.  Charcoal would symbolize that you are cold-blooded or inconsiderate.

All the kids worry when the soup is ladled into the bowls.  They love then-tuk (Tib., pulled noodles), but they are nervous about the prophecy that will spill from their bowls, so to speak.   I always got sichuan peppercorn in my dumplings.  This is a sign that my words are direct and sometimes biting.   My dad always gets the dumpling with the white stone.  The white stone signifies a very good-natured person, and my father is a true Bodhisattva who I have never seen to get angry.  And, because of dem drel (Tib., the manifestation of dependent arising), the contents of the dumpling really seem to fit the person!

On the 30th, we make the forms of small animals–yak, sheep and horses–and fry them.  Then we also make the shapes of the sun, moon and jewels and fry them as well.   We stick them on a small altar and arrange them into a beautiful scene to decorate the tent.  We also clean the inside of our tents.

On the evening of the 30th, we eat tons of momos (Tib., steamed dumplings).  Especially, the kids eat many dumplings because we are told that on that night, an old man will sneak into our tent and lift up each child to see how heavy we are.  In our culture, we think that being heavy means that we are healthy and strong–so the kids want to make sure that they are as heavy as possible for the visit that night.  At night, I could never sleep.  I always ate too much.  And, I would wait up in my bed and sometimes I felt as though my eyes played tricks on me and I actually saw him enter the room.

Normally we think that the water stops running in the middle of the night on lo-sar.    In the morning, we all race to the stream to see who can get the year’s first, purest and cleanest water.  Sometimes the adults can’t sleep because we are all thinking that we need to get the “head” of the water for the new year.  In the morning, we eat a cake made out of droma (Tib., Tibetan wild sweet potatoes) and each person has some because we think brings auspiciousness to the mouth.  We put on our best clothes, and we remove the old grass from the insides of our shoes and throw it out together, while putting new, fresh grass inside.  After that, those families who are fortunate enough to live with a Lama or Rinpoche, we offer tsok (Tib. offering feast).  Then…the festival begins!  For those of us who are with their family (my family has about 200 people in the village), we all stay together and eat, sing, dance.  We also have competitions like horse-racing, lifting heavy boulders, tug-of-war, and shooting at targets.

Of course, on the first day of lo-sar, we always visit our Lama, spiritual leaders, and elders to wish them Tashi Delek, and a healthy and long life.  That is the most important thing we do on that day.

Within 3 days, we make fried meat pies for those closest to us.  For girls, they will have a sun on the top, and a boy will have a moon.    We continue to celebrate until the 15th of the lunar calendar.  This is the most happy time of year in Tibet!

Happy Lo-sar and Tashi Delek to all of my students.  May all of you become great practitioners and embodiments of Bodhichitta!”

Anyen Rinpoche

Allison Graboski

www.anyenrinpoche.com

Tags: Anyen Rinpoche, Bodhichitta, Spiritual Friend, Tibet