Source: CCTV.com

02-26-2009 08:05

Special Report:   Tibetan New Year

"Losar" is the Tibetan word for "new year", and the Losar Festival is the most important holiday for Tibetan people. 2009 is the Tibetan year 2136 and is the year of the Female Earth Ox. This year, the Tibetan students in Beijing's Minzu University of China cannot celebrate Losar with their families, because the festival arrives on the first week of the new semester. However, there still have many activities on campus to help them celebrate the big day.

Students of Tibetan ethnic group decorate Qiema, a rectangular wooden box containing roasted barley, and highland barley, which symbolizing great harvest for the coming new year at Liaoyang First High School in north China's Liaoning Province on Feb. 25, 2009. Tibetans across China are celebrating the 50th Tibetan New Year after the Democratic Reform with their old traditions. (Xinhua/Cao Jingyi)
Students of Tibetan ethnic group decorate Qiema, a rectangular wooden 
box containing roasted barley, and highland barley, which symbolizing 
great harvest for the coming new year at Liaoyang First High School in 
north China's Liaoning Province on Feb. 25, 2009. Tibetans across China 
are celebrating the 50th Tibetan New Year after the Democratic Reform 
with their old traditions. (Xinhua/Cao Jingyi)

Wednesday is the first day of the first month of the Tibetan Calendar. And the students of the university's College for Tibetan Studies hosted a picture exhibition. Some 70 photographs and pictures depict the natural landscape, folk customs, and the modern development of the pearl on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. All the pictures and photographs were taken or collected by the students. The Losar Festival is celebrated for 15 days. The Minzu University students will have traditional Tibetan sports games and a Tibetan Guozhuang Dance party over the weekend.

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