Sherpa and Tibetan Losar
Gyalpo Losar
Gyalpo Losar is one of the most important festivals in the Tibetan communities. Gyalpo Losar is celebrated as the symbol of New Year where LO holds the semantic field “year, age”; SAR holds the semantic field “new, fresh”. This Gyalpo Losar is celebrated mostly by the Sherpa, Tamang, Bhutia and Yolmo. This Gyalpo Losar is celebrated in different ways by different communities in different places.
Gyalpo Losar is celebrated for almost 2 weeks but the main 3 days are celebrated with full enjoyment. On the first day, a beverage called changkol is made from the chhaang (a Tibetan cousin of beer). And the second day is celebrated as the Gyalpo Losar, The main New Year Day. On the Third day, there will be the gathering of friends and family relatives and they starts to talk, dance and sing song. On this day, they feast varieties of food and drinks to friends and family members and to the relatives.
On this Gyalpo losar, Sherpa people visits to the monasteries and Chants the mantras and give gifts to the monk. And on this occasion traditional dances are shown by the Sherpa people in their community and sings a folk songs. Special dishes are cooked like Soup the most important dish which is made up of meat, wheat, rice, sweet potato, cheese, peas, green peeper, vermicelli noodles and radish. On this day, Firecrackers are fired to get rid of ill spirits and every people seems to be happy and enjoy the Losar.
Although they are quite similar to each other, they have different calendars dates to clelbrate the festival. It is a month long celebration when first three days are considered the most important.
Our suggestion is, visit the Boudhnath area to see all the colorful shops filled with the special Losar sweets, breads and pastries.
Do:
o Visit Lumbini, Boudhanath Stupa, Swoyambhunath temple and other monasteries to see the Buddhist celebrations
o Taste the Losar treats of different kinds of sweet breads and snacks, also specific to this festival only