Losar Festival - Tibetian New Year, Tibet
As the most important festival of the Tibetan calendar, Losar Festival is the Tibetan New Year. Tibet's New Year is one of the biggest annual celebrations in the country, giving visitors a chance to spend time with Tibetans. They are dancing the deer and amusing battles between the king and his ministers. Losar Festival celebrated in some part of India with same vigor where Tibetan community lives i.e. Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.
The growing season of highland barley became associated with the beginning of the New Year as time went on. There are several ancient ceremonies, representing the conflict between good and evil that people celebrate during the festival. Throughout the crowd, lamas are chanting and passing fire torches. People are cheering for the New Year through dancing, singing, and merrymaking.
The marriage between Emperor Taizong of Tang and Princess Wencheng led to unexpected people-to-people communication when King Songtsan Gampo granted the intermarriage in 641AD for harmony and peace. The exchange of cultural information between Han and Tibetans covered topics as diverse as agriculture, astrology, and Buddhism. With time, some of the holiday practices from the Chinese calendar found their way into the Tibetan calendar. It is from this that Tibetan New Year became a part of the Tibetan calendar.
People celebrate the festival by performing ancient ceremonies that depict the struggle between good and evil. Throughout the crowds, lamas are chanting and carrying fire torches. A deer dance is performed, the king and his ministers engage in amusing battles, and so on, people are making merry and dancing for the New Year to come. In complete contrast to the Spring Festival dishes eaten by Han people in another part of China, Tibetan dishes are devoid of food like fish, duck, and chicken. Tibetans, out of respect for the Tibetan emperor, eat a lot of sweets and have a lot of fruits and vegetables, starting on Tibetan New Year's eve and continuing each day.