Tibetan Community celebrates Losar with religious fervor in Ladakh

Leh: The Losar (New Year) 2023 festival was celebrated across the Union Territory of Ladakh with religious fervor Tuesday.

Scores of people belonging to Tibetan community held special prayers on the auspicious occasion of Tibetan Losar, also known as Tibetan New Year.

During Losar, people go to the local spring to perform a ritual of gratitude. They make offerings to the nagas, the water spirits who activated the water element in the area. The devotees make smoke offerings to the local spirits associated with the natural world around them.

Meanwhile, Chairman/CEC, Adv. Tashi Gyalson, on behalf of LAHDC, Leh, and the people of Ladakh, extended greetings to the entire Tibetan community on the auspicious occasion of Tibetan Losar (New Year) 2023.

“Warmest greetings on Losar to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and all the Tibetan brothers and sisters in Ladakh and across the globe,” CEC Tashi Gyalson said.

“May this new year be full of blessings and merriment to all. My prayers for a long and healthy life of His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama,” the CEC prayed.

Losar also known as Tibetan New Year, is a festival in Tibetan Buddhism. The holiday is celebrated on various dates depending on location (Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan) tradition.

The holiday is a new year’s festival, celebrated on the first day of the Lunisolar Tibetan calendar, which corresponds to a date in February or March in the Gregorian calendar. Expectedly, this year, the New Year commenced on February 20, 2023 and celebrations would continue for couple of days.

Losar predates the arrival of Buddhism in Tibet and has its roots in a winter incense-burning custom of the Bon religion. During the reign of the ninth Tibetan king, Pude Gungyal (317-398), it is said that this custom merged with a harvest festival to form the annual Losar festival.

In 2023, Losar also commenced the Year of the Female Water Hare.