Customs:
The Tibetan New Year is a traditional Tibetan festival. Every year, the first day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar, ranging from three to five days. The beginning of December of the Tibetan calendar, people will begin to prepare for the New Year's goods, families in the water basin to soak barley seeds, cultivate seedlings. In mid-December, every household successively use ghee and white flour fried oil馃zi (Kasai), oil馃zi of many kinds, there are ear-shaped "Gou over", there is a long "Naxia", there is a round, "Bru! "There are many different kinds of oleomargarine. Close to the end of the year, each family should be prepared to draw a colorful rectangular bamboo Suqima grains bucket, bucket filled with ghee mixed with tsampa, fried wheat, ginseng fruit and other food, above the description of the barley cob, cocklebur and ghee colorful flower plate. And prepare a colorful ghee molded sheep's head. All of this has to celebrate the harvest, wishing for the coming year, the wind and rain, people and animals flourish meaning. New Year's Eve two days before the house inside and outside for cleaning, set up a new card mat, paste new year's paintings. Twenty-nine before dinner in the center of the stove room wall, with dry flour sprinkled with "eight auspicious micro". On the main door with lime powder painted with symbols of eternal good luck "" symbols, indicating longevity, food abundance, years of peace. On the evening of New Year's Eve, each family sets up various kinds of food in front of the Buddha statue, and in order to have sufficient and abundant food during the festival, the whole family is busy until late at night on this evening. For dinner on this day, each family eats dough tuba (kutu). In the dough tuba, several different kinds of dough with stone, chili pepper, charcoal, wool and other sandwiches are made, and each kind of sandwich has a saying: stone indicates a hard heart, charcoal indicates a black heart, chili peppers indicate that the mouth is like a knife, and wool indicates a soft heart. Eat these sandwiches of people, are spit out to cause laughter, to help the New Year's Eve. This is a kind of food and entertainment activities, no matter who ate what, must be spit out, which often cause laughter, adding to the festive atmosphere of joy.
To the first day, the green seedlings, oil 馃zi, sheep's head, grains bucket, etc. in the Buddha's niche on the coffee table, wishing a new year of life and food abundance. On the first day of the new year before dawn, the housewife from the river back to the "auspicious water", and then wake up the whole family, according to the generation of seated, the elders came to the grains of bucket each person to grab a few grains, thrown to the sky, said the sacrifice to the gods, and then grabbed a little bit of the order to send into the mouth. Thereafter, the elders in order to wish "Zaxi Dele" (good luck), the younger generation back to congratulate "Zaxi Dele Peng Songtso" (good luck, merit and success). After the ceremony, they eat cereal tuba and ghee boiled ginseng fruit, followed by mutual barley wine. The first day of the general ban on sweeping, not allowed to say unlucky words, each other do not visit guests.
The second day of the family and friends to congratulate each other on the New Year's Eve, and give each other Hada. Men, women and children are dressed in festive attire, meet each other "Zahidler", "happy holidays", this activity lasts three or five days. During the Tibetan New Year, in the square or on the open grass, everyone in a circle to dance potshuang dance, string dance, in the six-stringed zither, cymbals, gongs and other musical instruments, hand in hand, person by person, step on the ground for the festival, singing and children are burning firecrackers, the whole region immersed in joy, festive and peaceful atmosphere of the festival. In the towns and villages, Tibetan opera is sung, and potshoos and string dances are performed. In pastoral areas, herdsmen light bonfires and sing and dance all night long. Folk also engage in jousting, throwing, tug-of-war, horse racing, archery and other activities.
Preparing for "Chema"
Preparations for the New Year generally begin in early December of the previous year. In addition to the purchase of food, drink and fun in addition to the New Year's goods, families have to make a named "Chema" grains bucket, that is, painted with colorful patterns in the wooden box on the left and right were filled with fried wheat and ghee mixed into the tsampa, the top of the insertion of green tree spikes and ghee molded colorful flowers. Also soak a bowl of barley seeds in water, so that in the New Year's season to grow one or two inches long seedlings. "Chema" and wheat seedlings are enshrined in the center of the case, praying for a good harvest in the coming year.