Tibetan calendar
Encyclopedia
The Tibetan calendar is a lunisolar calendar
, that is, the Tibetan year is composed of either 12 or 13 lunar month
s, each beginning and ending with a new moon
. A thirteenth month is added every two or three years, so that an average Tibetan year is equal to the solar year.
The Tibetan New Year
celebration is Losar
(lo-gsar, ལོ་གསར་). The Tibetan civil year starts with the first day of the first Hor month. During the Yar-lung Dynasty the Tibetan year started in summer. According to almanacs the year starts with the third Hor month. There were many different traditions in Tibet to fix the beginning of the year.
Each year is associated with an animal and an element
, similar to the Chinese zodiac
. Animals have the following order:
Elements have the following order:
Each element is associated with two consecutive years, first in its male aspect, then in its female aspect. For example, a male Earth-Dragon year is followed by a female Earth-Snake year, then by a male Iron-Horse year. The sex may be omitted, as it can be inferred from the animal.
The element-animal designations recur in cycles of 60 years (a sexagenary cycle
), starting with a (male) Wood-Mouse year. These large cycles are numbered, the first cycle starting in 1024. Therefore, 2005 roughly corresponds to the (female) Wood-Bird year of the 17th cycle. The first year of the sixty-year cycle of Indian origin (1027) is called rab-byung (same name as the designation of the cycle) and is equivalent to the (female) fire-hare year.
s are used for Tibetan years.
On Tibetan banknotes
from the first half of the 20th century cardinal numbers can be seen, with year 1 at 225 AD, which is a reference to the 28th king of Tibet, Thothori Nyantsen
. A year 1659 means 1659 years have elapsed after the foundation of Tibetan monarchy and gives the year of . The introduction of this year notation is without doubt related to the proclamation of Tibetan independence by the 13th Dalai Lama in 1912.
Since the second half of the 20th century another year notation has been used, where the year of, for example, 2009 coincides with the Tibetan year of 2136. This relatively modern year notation is referred to as Bot Gyalo (bod rgyal lo). In this era the first year is 127 BC, referring to in this case the first king of Tibet Nyatri Tsenpo
.
In Tibetan calendars of the second half of the 20th century and on Tibetan coins
cardinal year numbers are found with the indication of rab lo, where the first year coincides with the first year of the rab byung-cycle, that is 1027. Rab lo 928, for example, is the year of 1954 on the western Gregorian calendar
.
From the 12th century onwards each month has been named by the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac:
With the introduction of the calendar of Kalacakratantra in the second half of the 11th century, months were also named via lunar mansions within which, roughly speaking, a full moon took place each month:
In the second half of the 13th century the famous ruler chos-rgyal 'Phags-pa introduced the system of counting the month by ordinal numbers, the so called Hor (=Mongolian)-month:
All these systems of counting or naming months were used up to modern times.
The first two of these days are astronomical days. The time needed for the mean sun to pass through one of the twelve traditional signs of the zodiac (the twelve khyim) is called khyim-zla (solar month). One-thirtieth of one solar month (khyim-zla) is one khyim-zhag, which might be called a zodiacal day, because there is no equivalent name in Western terminology.
The time needed by the moon to elongate 12 degrees from the sun and every 12 degrees thereafter is one tithi
(tshes-zhag, lunar day). The lengths of such lunar days vary considerably due to variations in the movements of the moon and sun.
Thirty lunar days form one lunar or synodic month (tshes-zla), the period from new moon to new moon. This is equal to the time needed for the moon to elongate 360 degrees from the sun (sun to sun). The natural day (nyin-zhag) is defined by Tibetans as the period from dawn to dawn. Strictly speaking, the months appearing in a Tibetan almanac, called by us Tibetan calendar months, are not the same as lunar or synodic months (tshes-zla), which can begin and end at any time of day. In Tibetan, there is no special term for a calendar month containing whole days. These calendar months are just called zla-ba (month).
A Tibetan calendar month normally starts with the week day or natural day (gza' or nyin-zhag) in which the first tithi (tshes-zhag) ends. A Tibetan calendar month normally ends with the week day or natural day (gza or nyin-zhag) in which the 30th tithi (tshes-zhag) ends. In consequence, a Tibetan calendar month (zla-ba) comprises 29 or 30 natural days. In the sequence of natural days or week days, there are no omitted days or days that occur twice. But since these days are also named by the term tshes together with a cardinal number, it happens that certain numbers or dates (the corresponding tithi) do not occur at all (chad) or appear twice (lhag). The tithi are counted from 1 to 30 and it can happen that a Monday with the lunar day number 1 (tshes gcig) is followed by a Tuesday with the moon day number 3 (tshes gsum). On the other hand, a Monday with the lunar day number 1 (tshes gcig) may be followed by a Tuesday with the lunar day number 1 (tshes gcig). In other words, it happens quite often that certain dates do not appear in the Tibetan almanac and certain dates occur twice. But there are no natural days or week days that occur twice or which are omitted.
The days of the week (gza, གཟའ) are named for celestial bodies.
Nyima "Sun", Dawa "Moon" and Lhagpa "Mercury" are common personal names for people born on Sunday, Monday or Wednesday respectively.
The translation of the Buddhist Kalachakra
tantra in the second half of the 11th century AD marked the beginning of a complete change for the calendar in Tibet. The first chapter of this book contains among others a description of an Indian astronomical calendar and descriptions of the calculations to determine the length of the five planets and the sun and moon eclipses.
According to the Buddhist tradition, the original teachings of the Kalacakra were taught by Buddha himself. Nevertheless it took more than two hundred years until the Kalacakra calendar was officially introduced as the official Tibetan calendar by the ruler Chos-rgyal 'Phags-pa
in the second half of the 13th century. Although this calendar was changed many times during the subsequent centuries, it kept its original character as a luni-solar calendar of Indian origin.
Lunisolar calendar
A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures whose date indicates both the moon phase and the time of the solar year. If the solar year is defined as a tropical year then a lunisolar calendar will give an indication of the season; if it is taken as a sidereal year then the calendar will...
, that is, the Tibetan year is composed of either 12 or 13 lunar month
Lunar month
In lunar calendars, a lunar month is the time between two identical syzygies . There are many variations. In Middle-Eastern and European traditions, the month starts when the young crescent moon becomes first visible at evening after conjunction with the Sun one or two days before that evening...
s, each beginning and ending with a new moon
New moon
In astronomical terminology, the new moon is the lunar phase that occurs when the Moon, in its monthly orbital motion around Earth, lies between Earth and the Sun, and is therefore in conjunction with the Sun as seen from Earth...
. A thirteenth month is added every two or three years, so that an average Tibetan year is equal to the solar year.
The Tibetan New Year
New Year
The New Year is the day that marks the time of the beginning of a new calendar year, and is the day on which the year count of the specific calendar used is incremented. For many cultures, the event is celebrated in some manner....
celebration is Losar
Losar
Losar is the Tibetan word for "new year." lo holds the semantic field "year, age"; sar holds the semantic field "new, fresh". Losar is the most important holiday in Tibet....
(lo-gsar, ལོ་གསར་). The Tibetan civil year starts with the first day of the first Hor month. During the Yar-lung Dynasty the Tibetan year started in summer. According to almanacs the year starts with the third Hor month. There were many different traditions in Tibet to fix the beginning of the year.
Years
There were different traditions of naming years (lo,ལོ་) in Tibet. During the time of the Yar-lung Dynasty years were named by the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. From the 12th century onwards, we observe the usage of two sixty-year cycles. The 60-year cycle is known as the Bṛhaspati (or Vṛhaspati) cycle and was first introduced into Tibet by an Indian Buddhist by the name of Chandra Nath and Chilu Pandit of Tibet in 1025 CE. The first cycle is the rab-byung cycle. The first year of the first rab-byung cycle started in 1027. This cycle was adopted from India. The second cycle was derived from China and was called drug-cu skor. The first year of the first drug-cu skor cycle started in 1024. The cycles were counted by ordinal numbers, but the years within the cycles were never counted but referred to by special names. The structure of the drug-cu skor was as follows:Each year is associated with an animal and an element
Five elements
Five elements may refer to: In philosophy: *Five elements *Mahabhuta*Pancha Tattva *Five elements In science:*Boron, element 5*Group 5 element*Period 5 element-See also:...
, similar to the Chinese zodiac
Chinese zodiac
The Shēngxiào , better known in English as the Chinese Zodiac, is a scheme that relates each year to an animal and its reputed attributes, according to a 12-year mathematical cycle...
. Animals have the following order:
| Hare | Dragon | Snake | Horse | Sheep | Ape | Bird | Dog | Pig | Mouse | Bull | Tiger |
Elements have the following order:
| Fire | Earth | Iron | Water | Wood |
Each element is associated with two consecutive years, first in its male aspect, then in its female aspect. For example, a male Earth-Dragon year is followed by a female Earth-Snake year, then by a male Iron-Horse year. The sex may be omitted, as it can be inferred from the animal.
The element-animal designations recur in cycles of 60 years (a sexagenary cycle
Sexagenary cycle
The Chinese sexagenary cycle , also known as the Stems-and-Branches , is a cycle of sixty terms used for recording days or years. It appears, as a means of recording days, in the first Chinese written texts, the Shang dynasty oracle bones from the late second millennium BC. Its use to record years...
), starting with a (male) Wood-Mouse year. These large cycles are numbered, the first cycle starting in 1024. Therefore, 2005 roughly corresponds to the (female) Wood-Bird year of the 17th cycle. The first year of the sixty-year cycle of Indian origin (1027) is called rab-byung (same name as the designation of the cycle) and is equivalent to the (female) fire-hare year.
| Year (Gregorian) | Year according to rab byung | Wylie Wylie transliteration The Wylie transliteration scheme is a method for transliterating Tibetan script using only the letters available on a typical English language typewriter. It bears the name of Turrell V. Wylie, who described the scheme in an article, A Standard System of Tibetan Transcription, published in 1959... | Element | Animal | Sex |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | rab byung 17 lo 22 | sa mo glang | Earth | Mouse | male |
| 2009 | rab byung 17 lo 23 | sa pho khyi | Earth | Cow | female |
| 2010 | rab byung 17 lo 24 | lcags pho stag | Iron | Tiger | male |
| 2011 | rab byung 17 lo 25 | lcags mo yos | Iron | Hare | female |
| 2012 | rab byung 17 lo 26 | chu pho 'brug | Water | Dragon | male |
| 2013 | rab byung 17 lo 27 | chu mo sbrul | Water | Snake | female |
| 2014 | rab byung 17 lo 28 | shing pho rta | Wood | Horse | male |
| 2015 | rab byung 17 lo 29 | shing mo lug | Wood | Sheep | female |
Years with cardinal numbers
Three relatively modern notations of cardinal numberCardinal number
In mathematics, cardinal numbers, or cardinals for short, are a generalization of the natural numbers used to measure the cardinality of sets. The cardinality of a finite set is a natural number – the number of elements in the set. The transfinite cardinal numbers describe the sizes of infinite...
s are used for Tibetan years.
On Tibetan banknotes
Historical money of Tibet
The use of historical money in Tibet started in ancient times, when Tibet had no coined currency of its own. Bartering was common, gold was a medium of exchange, and shell money and stone beads were used for very small purchases...
from the first half of the 20th century cardinal numbers can be seen, with year 1 at 225 AD, which is a reference to the 28th king of Tibet, Thothori Nyantsen
Thothori Nyantsen
Lha Thothori Nyantsen was the 28th King of Tibet according to the Tibetan legendary tradition...
. A year 1659 means 1659 years have elapsed after the foundation of Tibetan monarchy and gives the year of . The introduction of this year notation is without doubt related to the proclamation of Tibetan independence by the 13th Dalai Lama in 1912.
Since the second half of the 20th century another year notation has been used, where the year of, for example, 2009 coincides with the Tibetan year of 2136. This relatively modern year notation is referred to as Bot Gyalo (bod rgyal lo). In this era the first year is 127 BC, referring to in this case the first king of Tibet Nyatri Tsenpo
Nyatri Tsenpo
Nyatri Tsenpo was a king of Tibet from the so-called "Yarlung dynasty". His reign is said to have begun in 127 BC. According to traditional Tibetan history, he was the first ruler of the kingdom. He is said to have descended from heaven on Yalashangbo, the sacred mountain...
.
In Tibetan calendars of the second half of the 20th century and on Tibetan coins
Historical money of Tibet
The use of historical money in Tibet started in ancient times, when Tibet had no coined currency of its own. Bartering was common, gold was a medium of exchange, and shell money and stone beads were used for very small purchases...
cardinal year numbers are found with the indication of rab lo, where the first year coincides with the first year of the rab byung-cycle, that is 1027. Rab lo 928, for example, is the year of 1954 on the western Gregorian calendar
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...
.
| Year (Gregorian) | Epoch Epoch (reference date) In the fields of chronology and periodization, an epoch is an instance in time chosen as the origin of a particular era. The "epoch" then serves as a reference point from which time is measured... 127 BC | Epoch 255 AD | Epoch 1027 AD |
|---|---|---|---|
| From about February/March 2009 | 2136 | 1755 | 983 |
| From about February/March 2010 | 2137 | 1756 | 984 |
| From about February/March 2011 | 2138 | 1757 | 985 |
| From about February/March 2012 | 2139 | 1758 | 986 |
Months
During the time of the Tibetan Yar-lung Dynasty (7th – 9th century) Tibetan months (zla-ba, ཟླ་བ་ ) were named according to the four seasons:- First spring month (dpyid-zla ra-ba), middle spring month (dpyid-zla 'bring-po), last spring month (dpyid-zla mtha'-chung),
- first summer month (dbyar-zla-zla ra-ba), middle summer month (dbyar-zla 'bring-po), last summer month (dbyar-zla mtha'-chung),
- first autumn month (ston-zla ra-ba), middle autumn month (ston-zla 'bring-po), last autumn month (ston-zla mtha'-chung),
- first winter month (dgun-zla ra-ba), middle winter month (dgun-zla 'bring-po) and last winter month (dgun-zla mtha'-chung).
From the 12th century onwards each month has been named by the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac:
- stag (Tiger), yos (hare), 'brug (dragon), sbrul (snake), rta (horse), lug (sheep),
- spre'u (monkey), bya (bird), khyi (dog), phag (pig), byi (mouse) and glang (ox).
With the introduction of the calendar of Kalacakratantra in the second half of the 11th century, months were also named via lunar mansions within which, roughly speaking, a full moon took place each month:
- mchu, dbo, nag, sa-ga, snron, chu-stod, gro-bzhin, khrums, tha-skar, smin-drug, mgo and rgyal.
In the second half of the 13th century the famous ruler chos-rgyal 'Phags-pa introduced the system of counting the month by ordinal numbers, the so called Hor (=Mongolian)-month:
|
|
All these systems of counting or naming months were used up to modern times.
Days
There are three different types of days (zhag), the khyim-zhag, the tshes-zhag and the nyin-zhag.The first two of these days are astronomical days. The time needed for the mean sun to pass through one of the twelve traditional signs of the zodiac (the twelve khyim) is called khyim-zla (solar month). One-thirtieth of one solar month (khyim-zla) is one khyim-zhag, which might be called a zodiacal day, because there is no equivalent name in Western terminology.
The time needed by the moon to elongate 12 degrees from the sun and every 12 degrees thereafter is one tithi
Tithi
In vedic timekeeping, a tithi is a lunar day, or the time it takes for the longitudinal angle between the moon and the sun to increase by 12°. Tithis begin at varying times of day and vary in duration from approximately 19 to approximately 26 hours. There are 30 tithis in each lunar month, named...
(tshes-zhag, lunar day). The lengths of such lunar days vary considerably due to variations in the movements of the moon and sun.
Thirty lunar days form one lunar or synodic month (tshes-zla), the period from new moon to new moon. This is equal to the time needed for the moon to elongate 360 degrees from the sun (sun to sun). The natural day (nyin-zhag) is defined by Tibetans as the period from dawn to dawn. Strictly speaking, the months appearing in a Tibetan almanac, called by us Tibetan calendar months, are not the same as lunar or synodic months (tshes-zla), which can begin and end at any time of day. In Tibetan, there is no special term for a calendar month containing whole days. These calendar months are just called zla-ba (month).
A Tibetan calendar month normally starts with the week day or natural day (gza' or nyin-zhag) in which the first tithi (tshes-zhag) ends. A Tibetan calendar month normally ends with the week day or natural day (gza or nyin-zhag) in which the 30th tithi (tshes-zhag) ends. In consequence, a Tibetan calendar month (zla-ba) comprises 29 or 30 natural days. In the sequence of natural days or week days, there are no omitted days or days that occur twice. But since these days are also named by the term tshes together with a cardinal number, it happens that certain numbers or dates (the corresponding tithi) do not occur at all (chad) or appear twice (lhag). The tithi are counted from 1 to 30 and it can happen that a Monday with the lunar day number 1 (tshes gcig) is followed by a Tuesday with the moon day number 3 (tshes gsum). On the other hand, a Monday with the lunar day number 1 (tshes gcig) may be followed by a Tuesday with the lunar day number 1 (tshes gcig). In other words, it happens quite often that certain dates do not appear in the Tibetan almanac and certain dates occur twice. But there are no natural days or week days that occur twice or which are omitted.
The days of the week (gza, གཟའ) are named for celestial bodies.
| Day | Tibetan Tibetan script The Tibetan alphabet is an abugida of Indic origin used to write the Tibetan language as well as the Dzongkha language, Denzongkha, Ladakhi language and sometimes the Balti language. The printed form of the alphabet is called uchen script while the hand-written cursive form used in everyday... (Wylie Wylie transliteration The Wylie transliteration scheme is a method for transliterating Tibetan script using only the letters available on a typical English language typewriter. It bears the name of Turrell V. Wylie, who described the scheme in an article, A Standard System of Tibetan Transcription, published in 1959... ) | Phonetic transcription Transcription (linguistics) Transcription in the linguistic sense is the systematic representation of language in written form. The source can either be utterances or preexisting text in another writing system, although some linguists only consider the former as transcription.Transcription should not be confused with... | Object |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | གཟའ་ཉི་མ་ (gza' nyi ma) | Sa nyi-ma | Sun Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields... |
| Monday | གཟའ་ཟླ་བ་ (gza' zla ba) | Sa da-wa | Moon Moon The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more... |
| Tuesday | གཟའ་མིག་དམར་ (gza' mig dmar) | Sa Mik-mar | Mars Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance... |
| Wednesday | གཟའ་ལྷག་པ་ (gza' lhag pa) | Sa Lhak-ba | Mercury Mercury (planet) Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits... |
| Thursday | གཟའ་ཕུར་བུ། (gza' phur bu) | Sa Phur-bu | Jupiter Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,... |
| Friday | གཟའ་པ་སངས་ (gza' pa sangs) | Sa Ba-sang | Venus Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows... |
| Saturday | གཟའ་སྤེན་པ་ (gza' spen pa) | Sa ben-ba | Saturn Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek Cronus , the Babylonian Ninurta and the Hindu Shani. Saturn's astronomical symbol represents the Roman god's sickle.Saturn,... |
Nyima "Sun", Dawa "Moon" and Lhagpa "Mercury" are common personal names for people born on Sunday, Monday or Wednesday respectively.
History
During the time of the Yarlung Dynasty the Tibetan years were named after the 12 animals common for the Chinese zodiac. The month were named according to the four seasons of a year and the year started in summer.The translation of the Buddhist Kalachakra
Kalachakra
Kalachakra is a Sanskrit term used in Tantric Buddhism that literally means "time-wheel" or "time-cycles".The spelling Kalacakra is also correct....
tantra in the second half of the 11th century AD marked the beginning of a complete change for the calendar in Tibet. The first chapter of this book contains among others a description of an Indian astronomical calendar and descriptions of the calculations to determine the length of the five planets and the sun and moon eclipses.
According to the Buddhist tradition, the original teachings of the Kalacakra were taught by Buddha himself. Nevertheless it took more than two hundred years until the Kalacakra calendar was officially introduced as the official Tibetan calendar by the ruler Chos-rgyal 'Phags-pa
Drogön Chögyal Phagpa
Zhogön Qögyä Pagba, Zhogoin Qoigyai Phagspa or Drogön Chögyal Phagpa , born Lochö Gyäcän or Lochoi Gyaicain , was the fifth leader of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. He became the first vice-king of Tibet and played an important political role...
in the second half of the 13th century. Although this calendar was changed many times during the subsequent centuries, it kept its original character as a luni-solar calendar of Indian origin.
Primary sources
- (Sanskrit) Kalacakratantra. (Tibetisch) mChog gi dang-po sangs-rgyas las phyung-ba rgyud kyi rgyal-po dus kyi 'khor-lo.
- Grags-pa rgyal-mchan: Dus-tshod bzung-ba'i rtsis-yig
- sde-srid Sangs-rgyas rgya-mtsho: Phug-lugs rtsis kyi legs-bshad mkhas-pa'i mgul-rgyan vaidur dkar-po'i do-shal dpyod-ldan snying-nor
- karma Nges-legs bstan-'jin: gTsug-lag rtsis-rigs tshang-ma'i lag-len 'khrul-med mun-sel nyi-ma ñer-mkho'i 'dod-pa 'jo-ba'i bum-bzang
Secondary sources
- Svante JansonSvante JansonSvante Janson is a Swedish mathematician. A member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences since 1994, Janson has been the chaired professor of mathematics at Uppsala University since 1987....
, Tibetan Calendar Mathematics, accessed December 16, 2009