Losar

The New Year is a time to start anew, to put negative thoughts, habits and struggles behind us and look towards the future with hope and resolve.

The New Year is a time for wearing one’s best, for eating, for spending time with one’s family and friends. In the nomadic world, it is the best time of the year. The animals are nearby, mostly fed on the oats harvested in the fall, giving their owners the only time for leisure they will have in the year. For this reason, weddings are planned and enacted elaborately, assuring everyone will be able to attend.

The days following the new year are a time for pilgrimage, and some families take off for Lhasa where they will spend two weeks touring the holy sites, joining the crowds of pilgrims from all over Tibet. They will circumambulate the holy sites, make offerings to the butter lamps and pray on behalf of those who had to stay behind.

At Norlha, Losar is the time when the workshop is closed for its month long annual leave. It is the time to reconnect and enjoy their time with friends and family and to take part in an existence that has the best of both worlds; a rich cultural life that moves along with the times.