The main Tibetan festivals include the Tibetan New Year's Day, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and the Sagadawa Festival.

The Tibetan calendar is a combined yin and yang calendar. The yin and yang of the "five elements" (referring to wood, fire, earth, metal, and water) are combined with the twelve zodiac signs. One week every 60 years, the year of the rabbit (ding) is divided into yin and yang. Mao) is the beginning of the year, and there are major and minor periods in the month. Leap periods are usually set every three years; New Year's Day in the Tibetan calendar is the most important festival.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in the Tibetan calendar, local people have the custom of watching butter lanterns. April 15th was an auspicious day to commemorate the Buddha's birthday and Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty's entry into Tibet. Celebrations were held among the people. Tibetan festivals include Sagadawa Festival, Shoton Festival, Lantern Festival and Wangguo Festival.

In addition to celebrating the Tibetan New Year, the "Shoton Festival" is celebrated every year on July 1 of the Tibetan calendar. The Shoton Festival originally meant "Yoghurt Feast", when every family would make a large amount of yogurt for consumption. Later, Tibetan opera performances were added as part of the festival.

Many people during the Shoton Festival carry butter tubes, teapots, thermos bottles, and food to drink tea and drinks in beautiful places. Before the autumn harvest every year, the "Fruit Festival" is celebrated. During the Festival, people have to entertain each other and carry out various picnic activities to welcome the autumn harvest. There are also traditional festivals such as "Bathing Festival" and "Winter Festival".

Extended information:

Tibetans mainly live in the Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai Haibei, Huangnan, Goluo, Yushu and other Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures, as well as the Hainan Mongolian, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, and Gannan Tibetans in Gansu Autonomous prefecture and Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous County, Sichuan Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Mutu Tibetan Autonomous County, and Yunnan Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

Tibetans have their own language and writing. Tibetan language belongs to the Tibetan branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family of the Sino-Tibetan language family, and is divided into three dialects: Weizang, Kangfang and Amdo. The current Tibetan script is a pinyin script formulated in the early 7th century based on ancient Sanskrit and Western script.

Offering hada is the highest standard of Tibetan hospitality etiquette, expressing warm welcome and sincere respect to guests. Hada is Tibetan, which means gauze scarf or silk scarf. It is mainly white, but also light blue or light yellow. It is generally about 1.5 meters to 2 meters long and about 20 centimeters wide.

The best ones are blue, yellow, white, green and red hada. The colorful hada is used by Tibetans in the highest and most solemn ceremonies (such as Buddhist ceremonies). According to Tibetan Customs Chronicles written by Tibetan scholar Trilie Chozha, Hada was introduced to Tibet during the Yuan Dynasty. When the Tibetan Sakya Dharma King Pasiba met Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, and returned to Tibet, he brought the first hada with him.

The hada at that time had the pattern of the Great Wall on both sides, and the Chinese characters "good luck and good fortune" on it. This shows that Hada was indeed invented by the Han people.

Tibetan medicine is an important part of Chinese medicine. Tibetan medicine pays attention to processing technology, which is especially unique for veterinarians. The main medical works include "Four Continued Medical Prescriptions". Arithmetic can predict solar and lunar eclipses and recent local weather.

Tibetans generally believe in Tibetan Buddhism, which is Lamaism. Many traditional days in the past were related to religious activities. The biggest traditional festival among Tibetan people is the Tibetan New Year, which falls on the first day of the first lunar month of the Tibetan calendar every year.

The Tibetan New Year usually starts in December of the Tibetan calendar. Every family will fry the glutinous rice dumplings with ghee. There are many types of glutinous rice dumplings during the Tibetan calendar year, including ear-shaped "ancient" ones. , there is the elongated "Naxia", there is the round "Bulu", etc.

You also need to knead a sheep's head with colored butter and make a rectangular grain bucket. Fill the bucket with butter-mixed tsampa, fried highland barley grains and other foods, and insert highland barley ears, cockscombs and butter on top. colorful flowers. On New Year's Eve, the house is cleaned and the eight auspicious symbols symbolizing auspiciousness are painted with lime powder on the outside of each household's door.

Every Tibetan family in Yunnan eats dough (similar to dumplings) for New Year’s Eve dinner. The dough is filled with stones, peppers, charcoal, and wool. Each item has a different meaning, such as eating Dough wrapped with stones indicates that he has a hard heart in the new year; and whoever eats dough wrapped with wool indicates that he has a soft heart.

On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, highland barley seedlings, oily rice dumplings, kneaded sheep heads, and prepared grain buckets are placed on the tea table in front of the Buddhist altar, which indicates that in the new year, there will be a bumper harvest and adequate food and clothing. . Among the Tibetan people in Yunnan, every family will kill the New Year pig on New Year's Eve. As soon as they get up on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, everyone will drink a kind of highland barley wine with brown sugar and milk residue, called "Guandian".

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, most Tibetan areas will hold religious Dharma activities.

In the private sector, weddings and weddings are as lively as festivals. When getting married, the host should use butter to make three heads on the mouth of the wine pot and the mouth of the wine glass to express good luck. When making a toast, the elders first dip their middle finger in the wine and flick it upward, middle and downward three times to express sacrifice to heaven, earth and gods.

When greeting guests, in addition to dipping their hands in wine and flicking it three times, they also have to grab some barley in the grain bucket and throw it into the air three times. At the banquet, the host picks up the wine glass and drinks it first, and then drinks it all in one gulp. After the host drinks the first glass of wine, everyone can drink freely. At the wedding, the groom toasts to the bride.

When drinking tea, the guest must wait for the host to hold the tea in front of him before reaching out to take it and drink it, otherwise it will be considered rude. The traditional Tibetan banquet is divided into meals, without meals and snacks.

The first course is Zuma rice, the second course is pork jerky, the third course is pork fat, the fourth course is cheese, the fifth course is blood sausage, etc., and there are many more courses. The last dish is yogurt. No drinking during the meal. The host and the guest can eat more, less or not at all, but the first and last courses are indispensable. The former symbolizes good luck and the latter represents perfection.

When eating, pay attention to not filling your mouth with enough food, chewing without making any noise, drinking without making any noise, and picking food without overloading the plate. When entertaining guests with mutton, a piece of meat from the lower part of the mutton spine with the tail is the most valuable and should be given to the most respected guests. When making it, a lock of white hair is left on the tail meat to express good luck.

People's Daily Online - Tibetan