Happy Losar!
His Eminence Luding Khenchen Rinpoche and His Eminence Luding Khen Rinpoche wish you a Happy Losar!
His Eminence Luding Khen Rinpoche would like to give you this message:
༄། །དཔལ་ལྡན་བླ་མའི་སྐུ་ཚེ་མཛད་ཕྲིན་རྒྱས། ། སྤྱི་བྱེའི་བསྟན་པ་འཕེལ་ཞིང་རྒྱས་པ་དང་། འཇིག་རྟེན་ཁམས་ཀྱི་ནད་མུག་འཁྲུག་རྩོད་ཞི། རྫོགས་ལྡན་གསར་པའི་དཔལ་ལ་སྤྱོད་པར་ཤོག །
In the year of the Iron Ox of 2148 Losar,
We pray may all the Gurus enjoy excellent health with longevity and continue to flourish the Buddhadharma by turning the wheel of Dharma in all ten directions around our world;
May the Buddhadharma continue to prevail in every corner of the globe for the happiness of all; and
May all sentient beings be free of inner and outer obstacles, live in harmony with good health and in a happier world for all living beings in this new year of Losar.
Celebrations of Losar
Losar is a Tibetan Buddhist New Year festival celebrated on the first day of the Tibetan calendar. To welcome the new year, Tibetans celebrate Losar with a three-day festival, which includes worldwide prayers, the hanging of prayer flags, the performance of ceremonies and folk dances, passing fire torches among gatherings, reunions with family and friends, and the sharing of food and traditional Tibetan butter tea. Families visit temples to offer prayers and make offerings to the Sangha. The monasteries are decorated and the protector deities are respected with devotional rituals.
Losar is the most important traditional festival celebrated by all Tibetans. Several weeks before Losar, monasteries begin performing a series of rituals. The rituals are performed to purify the world of obscurations and blockages of the old year. The rituals also help to start out the new year afresh and involve many special practices of the guardians and protectors of the lineages.
This year at Ngor Monastery, the Great Sixty Torma Offering Ritual to Yamantaka was performed from 4 to 10 February. The Yamantaka Ritual is performed every year at Ngor Monastery for the benefit of all sentient beings.
To prepare for Losar's celebrations, monks at Ngor Monastery have also been busy making khapsey, a traditional Tibetan sweet biscuit, which is made for and shared on Losar. On the eve of Losar at the Sakya Institute of Vajrayana, the Venerable Khenpos, Rinpoches and Senior Monks enjoyed guthuk, a traditional Tibetan noodle soup, followed by games and enjoyment.
We pray that you, your Sangha and family have a successful, happy and auspicious New Year of 2148 – the Year of the Iron Ox.
Images of pre-Losar preparations and celebrations at Ngor Monastery and the Sakya Institute of Vajrayana
