Losar is the New Year celebration for the Tibetans. According to the Tibetan calendar which has a history of more than 1000 years, the festival fell on the second day of Chinese Spring Festival this year (2013). The Tibetan calendar is a lunisolar calendar, namely, it is composed of either 12 or 13 Chinese lunar months. It counts 354 days a year and divides a year into four parts: winter, spring, summer and autumn successively. It is said that the unique calendar calculation can help farmers figure out when to grow and harvest. Meanwhile, it can also provide a forecast of weather and geological disaster of the whole year.

Tibetan calendar calculations, a 2,000-year-old discipline, work out weather conditions on the basis of planetary movements, using the 12 zodiac houses and the five planets of Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn.The first Tibetan calendar is thought to have been produced in 1206, according to China Daily report.

There are many different traditions in Tibet to mark the beginning of the year. Men have their head shaved and women must braid their hair a few days before the festival to pray for good luck and happiness. Moreover, all the households, streets are cleaned up thoroughly.

Various recreational activities are held at different places of Tibetan to celebrate the festival, especially athletics. Acrobatic performance, wrestling, weightlifting and horse racing are all big attractions for tourists. In 2010, the festival was listed as one of the country's intangible cultural heritages.

(Editor:Hyesung)