China News Service, Lhasa, February 9th: Why do the Tibetan New Year and the Lunar New Year sometimes overlap?
——Exclusive interview with Gayong Zeren, assistant researcher at the Astronomy and Calendar Institute of the Tibetan Hospital of the Tibet Autonomous Region
China News Service reporter Jiang Feibo Gongsanglam
The time interval between the Tibetan New Year and the Lunar New Year is generally divided into three situations: the same day, one day difference, and one month difference. However, these three situations do not occur in rotation. For example, the Lunar New Year in 2022 is February 1, and the Tibetan New Year is March 3; the Lunar New Year in 2023 is January 22, and the Tibetan New Year is February 21; in 2024, they are on the same day.
How did the Tibetan calendar originate and evolve? What are its origins with Princess Wencheng, the lunar calendar, Tibetan Buddhism and even the Western calendar? Why do the Tibetan New Year and the Lunar New Year sometimes overlap? Recently, at the Institute of Astronomy and Calendar of the Tibetan Hospital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, assistant researcher Ganong Zeren, who has been engaged in Tibetan calendar calculation and research for more than ten years, accepted an exclusive interview with China News Service's "East-West Question".
The interview transcript is summarized as follows:
Reporter from China News Service: How did the Tibetan astronomical calendar come into being and what are its regional characteristics?
Kayong Zeren:
Tibetan people traditionally divide knowledge into the Great Five Ming Dynasties and the Small Five Ming Dynasties. Astronomy and calendar calculation belong to the "Shu Ming", one of the Small Five Ming Dynasties. It is generally believed that the original Tibetan calendar is composed of phenological calendars from various places. In the book "Calendar Comprehensive Treatise" written by Karma Rangchung Dorje, the Living Buddha of the Karma Kagyu Sect of Tibetan Buddhism in the Yuan Dynasty, an ancient Tibetan proverb is recorded: Observing birds and plants is the Luomen method, observing stars and wind and snow This is the Qiangtang method, observing the movements of the sun and moon is the Benxiang method, and observing mountains, lakes, and livestock is the Gangzhuo method.
In September 2023, during the Bathing Festival, people washed themselves on the banks of the Lhasa River. The Bathing Festival is called "Karma Riji" in Tibetan. When the King of Medicine rises, the festival officially begins and lasts for seven days every year. Photo by Jiang Feibo
In the 1980s, the book "Principles and Practice of the Tibetan Calendar" co-authored by Huang Mingxin and Chen Jiujin, the famous Tibetologists and ancient calendar experts, analyzed and summarized the above proverb: It can be seen that people live in different geographical environments. The objects of observation are also different. "Luomen" is in the southeast of Tibet. The climate here is warm and humid, and subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests and monsoon rain forests can grow. People living here are good at observing the comings and goings of migratory birds and plant growth throughout the year; "Qiangtang" "The northern part of the Tibetan Plateau is a pastoral area with lots of wind and snow, high altitude and thin air. It is easy to observe various stars in the sky with the naked eye at night on the open pastures. The old herdsmen there are good at using starlight and clouds to grasp recent weather changes. , to arrange grazing; "Benxiang" refers to the Ali area in western Tibet, where people are good at observing the movement of the sun and the moon, and were famous as far back as the Zanpu era in the seventh and eighth centuries; "Gangzhuo" is a semi-pastoral area, where people He is good at observing changes in mountains, rivers and lakes to predict the weather.
People living on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau have long observed the phenological changes of the sun, moon, stars, animals and plants, and gradually summarized the natural calendar with Tibetan characteristics, making it serve production and life.
On March 16, 2023, according to the Tibetan calendar tradition, Lhasa, Tibet ushered in the annual traditional spring plowing ceremony. Photo by Gongga Laisong
Reporter from China News Service: What is the connection between the development of Tibetan astronomy and calendar and Princess Wencheng? What content has been absorbed from the Central Plains culture?
Gayong Zeren:
In the seventh and eighth centuries AD, the exchanges between Tibet and the Central Plains increased during the Tubo period. Many generations of Zampu had political marriages with the Tang Dynasty. By marrying Princess Wencheng and Princess Jincheng, they learned a lot about medicine, irrigation, water conservancy and Advanced knowledge such as calendar calculations, including the art of Kanyu, astrology and other related contents that were flourishing in the Central Plains at that time. Such as "Eighty Divination Calendars", "Treasures of Five Elements: Secret Ming Lamp" and the Yellow Calendar. Among them, Tibetan medical calendar scholars Qiongbuzizi, Qiongbutanchu, Jiulamenba, etc. have successively translated such books on the calendar into Tibetan calendars. arts.
In addition, Tubo successively sent four people, namely Yixi Jiewa, Zang Yuxi, Zhunyi Denba and Laolaqing, to the Central Plains to learn the cultural knowledge of the Central Plains and translate some calendar classics into Tibetan, which later provided the basis for the improvement of Tibetan astronomical calendar. play a key role.
Among them, the eight trigrams, nine palaces, twelve constructions and divisions, twenty-four solar terms, three volts, spring oxen, and classic calculations derived from the "Book of Changes" have now been fully integrated into the discipline of Tibetan astronomy and calculus. Some classics of Tibet's primitive religion Bon Religion also record scenes such as the application of the Nine Palaces and Bagua during sacrifices at that time. From this, it can be inferred that some contents of the Central Plains culture had been accepted by the Tibetan ancestors at that time.
In November 2020, the large-scale Tibetan culture live-action drama "Princess Wencheng", which tells the story of the marriage between Princess Wencheng and Songtsen Gampo, was staged in Lhasa. Photo by He Penglai
Reporter from China News Service: How was the Tibetan calendar system formed, and why are the Tibetan calendar and the Western calendar related?
Kayong Zeren:
The current Tibetan calendar in Tibet and other provinces and prefectures and counties in Tibet is called the Kalachakra Calendar, also known as the Kalachakra Calendar. It is derived from the Kalachakra Sutra of ancient Indian Buddhism. This scripture is 1027 It was introduced to Tibet and since then, the Tibetan calendar has had a relatively mature system.
The Tibetan calendar uses the five elements (metal or iron, wood, water, fire, earth) and the animals corresponding to the twelve earthly branches to combine. The lunar calendar and the Tibetan calendar are similar in scientific principles. They both comprehensively refer to the cycles of the sun and the moon, and are both luni-solar calendars.
In Tibet, the calculation of solar and lunar eclipses not only has astronomical and calendrical significance, but also has religious significance. However, during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, due to increasing errors in the use of the Kalachakra calendar and the traditional Han calendar, they were unable to calculate eclipses more accurately. This provided a basis for the Tibetan calendar to later absorb the calculation of solar and lunar eclipses in the Western calendar. opportunity.
The Archives of the Institute of Astronomy and Calendar of the Tibetan Hospital still preserves many records of solar eclipse calculations by Tibetan astronomy and calendar scholars in the early 19th century. These calculation methods were based on the Qing Dynasty's constitutional calendar.
The ancient book data on solar eclipse calculations preserved in the archives of the Institute of Astronomy and Calendar of the Tibetan Hospital of the Tibet Autonomous Region. The information marked in the upper left corner of the data shows that this is the calculation of the solar eclipse in 1814. Photo by Jiang Feibo
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi presided over the compilation of the new calendar and compiled the "Chongzhen Almanac" based on Western astronomical knowledge. However, the Ming Dynasty perished before the Chongzhen Almanac was promulgated. After the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, Tang Ruowang, a German who participated in the compilation of the "Chongzhen Almanac", deleted the "Chongzhen Almanac" to 103 volumes and submitted it to the Qing court. Prince Rui Dorgon named it "Shi Xian" and promulgated it.
The more advanced calendar at that time involved mathematical problems such as geometry and trigonometry, which made it difficult to understand and translate into Tibetan. However, it was eventually successfully translated into Tibetan.
From the original phenology observation to the Bagua in the Book of Changes, to the Kalachakra calendar and the absorption of the calculation of solar and lunar eclipses in the time and constitution calendar, it is shown that the Tibetan calendar is not static, but is constantly reformed and innovated in practice.
Experts from the Astronomy and Calendar Institute of the Tibetan Hospital of the Tibet Autonomous Region demonstrated the calculation of the Tibetan calendar. Photo by Jiang Feibo
China News Service reporter: Why do the Tibetan New Year and the Lunar New Year sometimes overlap?
Kayaga Sawei:
The lunar calendar and the Tibetan calendar are similar in scientific principles. They both refer to the cycles of the sun and the moon, and are both lunar and yang calendars. In the specific practice process, for example, the settings of leap months and first months of the two are different, as well as the settings of missing days in the Tibetan calendar, resulting in the Tibetan New Year and the Lunar New Year sometimes differing by one month, sometimes on the same day, and sometimes differing by one day.
Both the lunar calendar and the Tibetan calendar are luni-solar calendars. In order to take into account the relationship between the solar calendar and the lunar calendar, a leap month is used to coordinate the number of days in the year between the two. The reason why there is a difference of one month between the two is because the Tibetan calendar uses the flat air method (also known as the constant air method, which divides the time of a tropical year into 24 equal parts) to set leaps, while the lunar calendar uses the true trajectory of the sun and sets the leap based on the fixed air method. Leap. The difference in leap months between the two causes the two New Years to sometimes fall in the same month and sometimes differ by one month.
When a leap month appears in the same cycle of the lunar calendar and the Tibetan calendar, the Spring Festival and the Tibetan New Year may fall on the same day or be one day apart; if the Tibetan calendar or the lunar calendar alone appears as a leap month, there may be a one-month difference.
Tibetan calendar and lunar calendar comparison data from the archives of the Institute of Astronomy and Calendar, Tibetan Hospital of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Photo by Jiang Feibo
In addition, the cycle of moon phase changes is about 29.5 days. The lunar calendar sets New Day (the first day of each month) as the first day of the lunar month. Wangri (the day of the full moon) may be on the 15th or 16th, while the Tibetan calendar sets Wangri as the first day of the lunar month. It falls on the 15th day, and New Year's Day may appear on the 30th day or the first day of the lunar month. This is why the Lunar New Year and the Tibetan New Year sometimes fall on the same day, and sometimes differ by one day.
It is worth mentioning that the setting of double and missing suns is a major feature of the Tibetan calendar, which was created to correspondingly configure the solar day sequence and the lunar day sequence. The missing day in the Tibetan calendar will be encountered during the Tibetan New Year in 2024. December 29 of the Tibetan calendar is a missing day (that is, there is no day on the 29th in the almanac).
It is the separate setting of leap months and first months in the lunar calendar and the Tibetan calendar, as well as the setting of missing days in the Tibetan calendar, that together form the situation that the Tibetan New Year and the Lunar New Year sometimes overlap. (over)
Interviewee profile:
Kayong Zeren, assistant researcher at the Institute of Astronomy and Calendar, Tibetan Hospital of the Tibet Autonomous Region
Kayong Zeren, a native of Qamdo, Tibet, is an assistant researcher at the Astronomy and Calendar Institute of the Tibetan Hospital of the Tibet Autonomous Region. The first graduate of the Tibetan Medical College (now Tibet Tibetan Medicine University) majoring in astronomy and calculus. He studied under Gongga Renzin, the representative inheritor of the second batch of China's national intangible cultural heritage project "Tibetan Astronomy and Calendar". He has been engaged in this field for more than ten years. Tibetan calendar calculation and research work.