Calendar

The unique Tibetan Calendar and 2005 -2008 celebration date contrast of Tibetan festivals

Last Update : 8/2/2008 10:50:16 AM Edit

For the seclusion and different plateau climate from the inner land, the Tibetans used their own wisdom to explore astronomic changes in their productions and daily life, and finally created a rough series of rules as their guide. Before 100 BC, the indigenous religion of Tibet - Bon marked off months according to the circle of changes of the moon. Later they calculated the recursive date of the Winter Solstice, which was then fixed as the beginning of a year. They also extracted some ideas from the Indian Calendar when Buddhism was introduced from there. In the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), Princess Wencheng was married to the King of Tibet - Songtsen Gampo - and also brought the imperial calendar (or lunar calendar) of Han people there. The Tibetan Calendar was greatly developed after absorbing these foreign essence. It was finally identified as a formal calendar in the Yuan Dynasty (1271 - 1368) when Tibet was ruled by the Mongol like the inner land, and had been passed on until now.

Last Update : 11/16/2006 9:41:08 PM Edit

By the formal Tibetan Calendar, there are 12 months of 354 days a year on average, which was divided into longer months of 30 days and shorter months of 29 days. Passing 1,000 days more or less, another month intervenes to adjust the harmony between months and climate. So the Tibetan New Year and the similar Lunar New Year (Chinese Spring Festival), form a relationship of 'Circle of Three Years' with each other. That is, their dates are the same in the first year, and have a discrepancy of one day the second year and one month the third year. Then they meet again in the fourth year and are circulated like that.

Last Update : 8/2/2007 10:13:10 PM Edit

The Tibetan Calendar has a similar way of counting years as the Lunar Calendar by the connection of 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthen Branches to designate marks of order. But the Five Elements (Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth) and 12 Zodiac Attributes (Mouse, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Chicken, Dog, Pig) are used to replace them and either 'Solar' or 'Lunar' is appended before. For example, we can name a Tibetan year as 'Solar Water Dog'. There is a small circle every 12 years and a big circle 60 years. So 'Solar' and 'Lunar' are often omitted in use without any misunderstanding. The first circle of Tibetan Calendar began in 1027, and the year of 1982 was called as 'Water Dog' in Tibet according to this method.

Last Update : 6/5/2008 4:5:44 PM Edit

The Tibetan Calendar also uses 24 solar terms to predict the movement of the Five Planet as well as Solar and Lunar Eclipse. Besides, it can also calculate changes of weather and climate and the earthquake according to the location of the Nine Planets of Solar System, which is out of reach for other calendars. For its research on climate, weather and geography, Tibetan Calendar is also widely advocated in Tibetan Medicine  for picking and making herbal medicines, pulse examination and other treatments. Tibetan festivals  are also dated on this calendar.

• 2005 -2008 celebration date contrast of Tibetan festivals

Festival	Date Contrast
		2005	2006	2007	2008
Tibetan New Year	Tibetan calendar	January 1	January 1	January 1	January 1
	Gregorian calendar	February 9	February 28	February 18	February 7
Butter Lantern Festival	Tibetan calendar	January 15	January 15	January 15	January 15
	Gregorian calendar	February 23	March 14	March 4	March 26
Saka Dawa Festival	Tibetan calendar	April 15	April 15	April 15	April 15
	Gregorian calendar	May 23	June 11	May 31	June 18
Zhuanshan Jie (Mountain Circling Festival)	Tibetan calendar	June 4	June 4	June 4	June 4
	Gregorian calendar	July 10	July 28	July 18	August 5
Shoton Festival	Tibetan calendar	June 30 to July 6	June 30 to July 6	June 30 to July 6	June 30 to July 6
	Gregorian calendar	August 5 to August 11	August 23 to August 27	August 12 to August 18	August 30 to September 5
Bathing Festival	Tibetan calendar	Last ten days of July	Last ten days of July	Last ten days of July	Last ten days of July
	Gregorian calendar	Last ten days of August	Middle ten days of September	Middle ten days of September	Last ten days of September
Ghost-Exorcising Festival	Tibetan calendar	December 29	December 29	December 29	December 29
	Gregorian calendar	February 27 of 2006	February 29 of 2007	February 5 of 2008	February 23 of 2009