Losar Festival Date: December 8, 2018
Losar festival of Ladakh is one of the most important festivals of Tibetans. Ladakh every year celebrates this festival with great excitement and fervor to mark the beginning of the New year. It is in this festival where Tibetans offer prayers and perform the host of rituals in Ladakh.
It is that time of the year when all the gompas monasteries are packed with devotees, who pray, sing and dance to welcome the New Year with great spirit and during the Losar festival, you get connected to the divine forces as they believe.
Losar translates to Lo meaning year and Sar meaning new and it's here in Ladakh you get to experience them both. The celebrations begin on the very first day of the 11th Lunar month and the tradition of celebrating it on this very day has been going on since the 17th century, started by the King, Jamyang Namgyal. As it is said that the king was preparing to fight against Baltistan forces, but was advised to wait until next year by an oracle. But he brought forward New Year Losar celebrations by a month and, hence, it was celebrated before the actual date.
The locals in Ladakh begins the festivities by cleaning their homes and preparing for the performances, which takes place in the monasteries. Whereas on the day of the festival from early morning monks from Namgyal monastery makes a religious offering to Goddess Palden Lhamo, who is considered to be as the supreme protector of Dharma.
On the second day called King’s Losar, a gathering takes place within a hall of Excellence of Nirvana and Samsara and the government welcome the dignitaries and exchange greetings with them. Also, important representatives from countries like China, Nepal, Bhutan, India, Mongolia, and other places attended the celebrations.
And from the third day, the monks and the local people begin celebration and performances, wherein the most interesting part of the celebration is the masked dance. So do not miss out on this and visit Ladakh to experience the most beautiful Losar Festival.
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