RYI STUDENT BLOG

Yummy, 'Khabsey' - the Famous Tibetan Losar Food! Let me give you an idea of what it means to celebrate Tibetan New Year - 'Losar' . First of all if you live with a Tibetan family you should know that the first day of the Losar celebrations, you are not allowed to go outside to meet friends at their homes. For this you will have to wait for the second day of Losar. But then it gets interesting. The second Losar day you must go and meet your friends. The visit usually begins by being served boiled 'chang' (local alcohol) in which they put something!!! Together with the 'chang' you will enjoy sweet rice with dry fruits. Then follows lunch: Here in Nepal this may well be local or Indian food according to where your hosts grew up. About the lunch is nothing very particular, except the quantity. You eat and eat and eat. When you feel full they will ask you to open your mouth and if they see some empty space they will serve you again more f...

The highlight of the Tibetan calendar and also of living in Bouddha is the New Year, Losar , taking place in February. ( lo = year, sar = new) Already weeks before the actual date all kind of preparations are going on: People clean up their houses and specially the house-shrines, prepare huge amounts of special biscuits called kabse and give order to make new dresses chupas. The second last evening before the New Year according to the tradition the family joins together and eats a special type of soup called guthuk. ( gu = 9, thuk = soup) Not only does this soup contain nine different ingredients, but also small pieces of paper, covered by bread on which symbolic words are written. Every member of the family will receive one of them and the meaning can be quite auspicious. There are words such as sun, symbolizing a friendly and shiny character, salt which means being lazy, moon for somebody who dispels other peoples obstacles or chilly representing a rather wrathful char...