Having tea with cousins in the guest room of my uncle’s house.
There are numerous Losar activities here on the Tibetan Plateau. May it be gathering for tea, steamy yak meat dumplings, butter sculpture, altar ornaments, or Bön practitioners performing dances.
Sharing with you are pictures of some events that I’ve been blessed to be part of. I hope these visuals would bring you a sense of celebration and enjoyment to your day there on the other side of the world.
Deep-fried goodies and a few pieces of dried Tibetan-style cheese on top, a part of the table display.
Butter Sculpture, a yearly masterpiece made of butter, is presently by Kumbum Monastery (སྐུ་འབུམ་བྱམས་པ་གླིང།) near Siling /Xining, during Losar. Buddhists worship it seeing the Buddhahood, and tourists admire it for its detail and skillfulness.
A corner of Losar (New Year) dinner party.
Dumplings with yak meat and scallions that will soon be served for lunch.
As every family decorated the doors, here is an altar divinely ornamented, next to our village temple.
Bon practitioners are performing a religious dance in Mhaba village of Rebgong, Amdo.
An adorable Tibetan girl is on the way to Rongbo (Longwu) Monastery རོང་བོ་དགོན་ཆེན, the principal monastery of Gelugpa school in Rebgong, wearing nylon-fiber Tibetan attire, which used to be made of sheepskin.
So colorful! The US must seem very drab. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you, Kate. Tibetan culture may be very colorful, but the US has Apple, and the ultimate apple pie. 🙂
Jolma, your website is so unique: candid, colorful photos, wonderful narrative. Keep up the great work! Cordially, Larry
Thank you, Larry. I am pleased you think so.
I shared this story with my Facebook friends. (Maybe you could put an FB link on the page for quick, easy sharing?) The photos are fantastic, especially the little girl you so correctly called “adorable.” For me, it’s such a privilege even just to see traditions otherwise not accessible to non-Tibetans. Please do carry on.
Hi Joel, it’s so nice to see you dropping by. I’m delighted you are learning Tibetan traditions here at Beyond Her Kitchen.
As for the Facebook link, there are social media links on the summary page, and on each post but towards bottom of the page. This seems causing a bit of accessibility issue; I will definitely try to bring them up higher so they are more visible. Thank you for the suggestion and sharing the link, Joel.
Wonderful pictures! I am so homesick for Amdo. Someday I’d like to know more about the Bon activities in Rebgong 🙂
Nama-mama – Thank you. I’m sorry you missed Losar dumplings, and the Bon dance in Rebgong this year. It is on the 7th of new year. Hope you can make it in 2016.
A couple of links below about the ‘old religion’:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tibet/understand/bon.html
The photos could win a photo contest. Love the one of the women looking at the dumplings!
Thank you, Rose. I attended a Tibetan woman’s 80th birthday during Losar (new year), and we had those dumplings for lunch, along with milk tea, yak meat and noodle soup.
Beautiful blog, vibrant photos, like a personal invitation to a different culture. I can see I’ll learn a lot from following you.
Thank you for joining and exploring on my journey to celebrating Tibetan culture. Welcome, Linda.
Stunning photos. Need to catch up with your lovely posts. Looks like I’ve been missing out.
Thank you, Anna. I hope you will experience something new as you explore my world. 🙂
More wonderful images. I especially like the image with the women laying out the dumplings.