It’s a really interesting time to be in Nepal. We don’t celebrate Chinese New Year but the the Tibetan community living in Nepal celebrate Tibetan Loshar in a big way. They worship local deities and family and friends get together to offer prayers and prayer flags as well as burning incense. It actually starts on the first day of the lunar calendar and the Loshar continues for 15 days. This year is the Tiger year. And it’s year 2137 according to the Tibetan Calendar.
Offering prayers in Nepal
It’s also the time the Sherpa’s celebrate their New Year. It’s a couple of days celebration with lots of merrymaking, feasting, meeting relatives and offering prayers. Both the Tibetans and Sherpas make khapsey, a mixture of wheat flour, sugar and butter which is fried. The khapsey can be stored and eaten a couple of days or weeks later but I don’t know how they keep it so long. When Tibetan and Sherpa Loshar dawns, I personally wish i had lots of Sherpa and Tibetan friends so that i could get more khapseys!