Time to bring out the 'tormas'

This year, it falls on Sunday, February 14. The various festivities and rituals during this period are as follows:

Days: 27 to 29 preceding New Year: A ritual called the Vajrakilaya Sutor for eliminating negativities of the past year is performed wherein prayer sessions are conducted in a monastery followed by food offerings called tsok. The lamas then make a large torma (a decorative sculpture made of butter and flour used as a ritualistic offering to sacred objects) in the form of a Vajrakilaya along with a host of 46 smaller tormas representing various sacred hand emblems.

“Vajrakilaya means something sharp that pierces — a dagger, basically. A dagger that is so sharp can pierce anything, while at the same time nothing can pierce it. This sharp and piercing energy is what is used to practice and out of the many infinite, endless Vajrayana methods, this happens to be one of most important methods. At the end of the three-day ritual, the tormas are burnt.

Day 29: On this day called Sutor a special food called Guthuk is eaten in the evening which is a gruel soup with dumplings. The dumplings contain symbolic items or revelations placed inside them that might indicate the fortune or the personality of the person who gets it. A string of white wool indicates a pure heart, a charcoal for an evil heart, a chili for a foul or sharp tongue and so on.

In large Suthuk gatherings, written notes are popular where everyone delights in showing off their messages to one another. Following this, everyone participates in a religious ceremony to exorcise evil spirits from the previous year, which is the original purpose of the Gutor. Everyone places some leftover gruel soup and pieces of old cloth into an effigy made of dough representing a fierce god which is then burnt thus symbolising the driving away of personal obstacles that keeps one untouched by sickness and misfortunes all through the year.

Day 30, New Year’s Eve (Namkhan): The long life Buddha Amitayus is said to prolong one’s lifespan so that the human form has more time to practice the dharma. On this day as part of the ritual called Lud Tangwa, people place their cut nails, hair or unwashed clothing into a receptacle called Lud which contains a human figurine representing negativities. Food offerings are also placed in this to pacify the evil spirits.

After the ritual, the Lud is traditionally thrown at the crossroads, but in recent times it is mostly burnt. In homes and monasteries, everything is cleaned and scrubbed and decorations of homes and altars are in full swing with thangkas, scarves and the finest edible and related traditional offerings.

This includes the traditional Tibetan dish, Oresi — sweet buttered rice with raisins, dromas (small fibrous potatoes) varieties of meat, fruit, breads, the millet beer called chang, butter tea and the popular Khabse, a deep-fried sweet or salted snack made with refined wheat flour that comes in different shapes. They are supposed to wake up on Losar and first see the Khabses piled high up on their tray.

New Year’s Day: With Khabse crunching in their mouths and washed down with chang, Losar begins by exchanging greetings by saying Tashi Delek (referring to prosperity, sound health and goodness!) to family members and neighbours. On this day even young Tibetans wear the Chuba (the traditional Tibetan attire) and pay their first visit of the year to a temple with their family early in the morning. After that, they feast on the food and drinks with their families and neighbours.

Day 2: From the second day onwards, they visit their relatives and family friends and have parties full of drinking and singings and dances. On Losar days, Tibetans don’t miss an opportunity to enjoy gambling, with games of Sho (dice), or, Pakchen (Mah-jongg) or cards. For young Tibetans, Losar is the time to unabashedly ask their elders for money!

Day 3: On the third day, as the festivity continues, Tibetans replace the year-old Dhar-choks and Dhar-shings (hoisted prayer flags) on the roof of their houses with new ones and burn thick bunches of Sang (Incense). Upon hoisting, barley flour is tossed into the air shouting Kyi-kyi So-So Lha Gyalo (happiness, happiness and let victory be to God).
In the monasteries, smoke offerings and special pujas are held such as the Riwo Sang Chot which is a powerful puja that enables participants to accumulate plenty of merit and blessings and purify bad karma.

Days 4 to 15: In the Gelupa sect, a very sacred festival called Monlem Chemo or the great prayer festival is held from Days four to 15. Choenga Choepa or butter lamp festival is the celebration of offerings on the 15th day after Losar. This is to mark the triumph of the Lord Buddha over his six non-Buddhist teachers who challenged him in performing miracles. On this day, huge coloured butter and wax sculptures are erected and mounds of Khabse are heaped up for offering. Later they are distributed to the monk and lay people.

It takes one whole month for six monks to complete a traditional butter sculpture. It is believed that by making such offerings one creates a positive karma which overcomes epidemics, hunger, war and other negative effects ushering in peace and harmony.

In the Nyingma tradition, from days seven to 15, a very intensive prayer session called Drubchen is held in the monasteries attended by monks and nuns in a 24 hour shift. On Day 10, called the Guru Rinpoche day, during the Drubchen, a giant Guru Rinpoche thangka is spectacularly unfurled.

This is followed by the famed Guru Rinpoche Lama dance that includes his eight manifestations. On the 15th day another thangka, either that of Buddha Amitayus or of the Shakyamuni Buddha is unfurled. This is followed by blessings from the high Lamas or the Rinpoches and various kinds of Lama dances, including the various mask dances and the important Black Hat Dance.

These rituals and festivities can be witnessed in the various Tibetan settlements in India.