Losar Festival: The New Year Festival of The Monpa Tribe of Arunachal Pradesh

Losar, a popular festival of the Arunachali Monpas is celebrated to mark the advent of spring and the first day of the lunar calendar. With a population of around 60,000, the Arunachali Monpas celebrate this festival for fifteen days of which the initial three days are the most important.

This festival is celebrated with great pomp and show in the Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh. Belonging to the Mongoloid stock, the Monpas are mainly into agriculture and animal husbandry and Losar is the most important festival of the Monpas.

The Significance of this Festival:

Losar in a literal sense means "New Year." Etymologically, The term 'Losar' is of Tibetan origin and comprises two words 'Lo' meaning year and 'Sar' implying 'new' together it means "New Year". Hence, commemorating the advent of New Year, Losar is the occasion when Monpas feast, drink and make merry.

The Buddhists mark the festival as a victory of good over evil. The festival is observed to ward off evil spirits and welcome the New Year with hope and joy. The Tibetan lunar calendar assigns an element as well as an animal to this festival each year. This year it will be a metal ox year.

History Related to this Festival:

Losar, an ethnic festival combined with celebrations and prayers, has its roots in a winter incense burning custom of the Bon religion, the pre-Buddhist religion over which Buddhism is believed to have triumphed. It was during the reign of the ninth Tibetan King, Pude Gunyal that this custom merged with a harvest festival to form what we today know to be the Losar festival.

The festival came into existence much before Buddhism was celebrated as a gesture of thanks to the Gods. Initially celebrated mostly among farmers, Losar went on to become a predominantly Buddhist festival celebrating the commencement of the New Year. The various traditions involved in the festival predate Indian as well as Chinese influences. Originally, the celebrations of Losar occurred solely on the winter solstice and were moved to coincide with the Chinese and Mongolian New Year.

How Losar is celebrated?

Before the advent of the Losar festival ,the natives of Tawang can be seen cleaning their homes and getting rid of unused and old items, they believe that by doing so one can usher good health, peace, and prosperity to the household.

Relatives and friends get together and celebrate this festival in a very pompous manner. Monpas prepare for the festival a few days before its arrival by thoroughly cleaning and decorating their homes and it's walls with fragrant flowers and auspicious signs such as the sun, the moon, or a reversed swastika which are all painted in flour. They also collect cedar, rhododendron, and juniper branches for burning as incense. During the festival,flags are hoisted atop each house; people read holy scriptures and lit lamps with oil in the houses.

Symbolizing purification and freshness, Losar is a good excuse for grand feasts and celebrations and the Monpas worship their local for the welfare of the society and its people. It is the time when people celebrate the local delicacies and drinks. During the festival old debts are settled, quarrels are resolved and new clothes are acquired. Special food items like Dresil: sweet buttered rice with raisins and small fibrous potatoes called droma; Kabse: a fried sweet or salted baked snack in different shapes and forms; different meat varieties, fruits, bread, butter tea, and others are served during the festival and is enjoyed by all. Since in the Tibetan language "sheep's head" and "beginning of the year" sound similar, a sheep's head prepared from colored butter is a customary fashion in every household during the festival.

Just a day ahead of the festival, the Monpas prepare offerings called 'Lama Losar' and Eight auspicious symbols called the 'Tashi Dargye' containing the precious umbrella, a victory banner, two golden fish, a right coiled white conch shell, a lotus flower, a vase of treasure, and the Dharma Wheel along with the Eternal Knot are all used to decorate houses in the region.

On the first day of Losar, a beverage called Changkol is prepared from "Chhaang", a Tibetan-Nepali type of beer. The Monpas offer Prayers at the Tawang Monastery, offerings are also made to the household shrine. In the evening, a traditional noodle soup called guthuk is prepared, which contains dumplings made from flour and water by stuffing it with nine different fortune symbols that are said to determine the fortune of the person in the upcoming year.

The second day of the festival is known as King's Losar or Gyalpo Losar. On this day, people visit their friends and families and take part in the Aji Lhamu, a traditional mask dance.

It is a time for them to exchange the warmest greetings with their fellow relatives, family members, neighbors, and everyone around. They utter 'Tashi Delek' meaning 'good luck' in hopes of a prosperous year ahead. Later in the evenings, torches are lit by the people with a strong belief that it will ward off evil spirits from their abodes. Losar is characterized especially by dancing, music, and a general spirit of merrymaking.

The third day of this festival is New Year's Day. By waking up early and wearing new clothes, locals offer prayers to the Gods on this day. Later on this day, people celebrate by eating "kapse" and "chang". On the final day, visits are paid to the local monastery for offering prayers, donating food and clothes and people also raise flags, make butter sculptures, and burn juniper leaves on this day.

Apart from Arunachal Pradesh Losar is celebrated in Nepal, Tibet, Sikkim, and Bhutan as well. Ladakh, in Jammu and Kashmir, also celebrates Losar in the same way, though it is celebrated in the month of December. Buddhists make religious offerings before their deities in the various shrines or Gompas as they call it.

This celebration is the time when one is able to witness and taste the best of the Tibetan culture and delicacies. On this special occasion, one extremely noticeable aspect of the Tibetans is their cultural values. They firmly believe that one has to be highly warm-hearted, generous, and welcoming during this religious occasion because the temper of a person during this span will determine how the person would be throughout the following year.

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