# Tibetan calendar

The Tibetan calendar (Tibetan: ལོ་ཐོ, Wylie: lo-tho), or the Phukpa calendar, known as the Tibetan lunar calendar, is a lunisolar calendar composed of either 12 or 13 lunar months, 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 15th century Phukpa calendar is the main Tibetan calendar, and the Karma Kagyu's Tsurluk calendar is also in current use. The Tibetan New Year celebration is Losar (Tibetan: ལོ་གསར་, Wylie: lo-gsar), which falls either in the months of February or March in the Gregorian calendar.
During the Tibetan Empire period, the Tibetan calendar was a seasonally based calendar before the Buddha Shakyamuni's Kalachakra calendar system, a blend of both the Indian zodiac and Chinese zodiac systems, was incorporated. The Tibetan calendar is the basis of the Mongolian calendar, and the first day of Losar also aligns with the third Mongolian (Hor) month in other almanacs.
Every month, certain dates in the Tibetan calendar have special significance for Tibetan Buddhist practices, as do certain months of the Tibetan calendar year when the anniversaries of events from Shakyamuni Buddha's life correspond, such as Saga Dawa of the Tibetan fourth month.

## Years

There were different traditions of naming years (Tibetan: ལོ་, Wylie: lo) in Tibet. From the 12th century onwards, we observe the usage of two sixty-year cycles. The 60-year cycle is known as the Vṛhaspati cycle and was first introduced into Tibet by an Indian Buddhist by the name of Chandranath and Tsilu Pandit in 1025 CE. The first cycle is the rabjyung (Tibetan: རབ་བྱུང༌།, Wylie: rab byung) cycle. The first year of the first rabjyung cycle started in 1027. This cycle was adopted from India. The second cycle was derived from China and was called Drukchu kor (Tibetan: དྲུག་ཅུ་སྐོར།, Wylie: drug cu skor, Sanskrit Vrhaspati). The first year of the first Drukchu kor 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 drukchu kor was as follows: Each year is associated with an animal and an element, similar to the Chinese zodiac. Animals have the following order:
    HareDragonSnakeHorseSheepMonkeyBirdDogBoarRatOxTiger ཡོས་ yosའབྲུག་ 'brugསྦྲུལ་ sbrulརྟ་ rtaལུག་ lugསྤྲེ་ spreབྱ་ byaཁྱི་ khyiཕག་ phagབྱི་བ་ byi.baགླང་ glangསྟག་ stag
Elements have the following order:
    FireEarthIronWaterWood མེ་ meས་ saལྕགས་ lcagsཆུ་ chuཤིང་ shing
Each element is associated with two consecutive years, first in its male aspect (pho), then in its female aspect (mo). 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-Rat year. These large cycles are numbered, the first cycle starting in 1024. Therefore, 2005 roughly corresponds to the (female) Wood-Rooster 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-Rabbit year.
    Year (Gregorian)Year according to rabjyungWylieElementAnimalSex 2008rabjyung 17 lo 22sa pho byiEarthRatmale 2009rabjyung 17 lo 23sa mo glangEarthOxfemale 2010rabjyung 17 lo 24lcags pho stagIronTigermale 2011rabjyung 17 lo 25lcags mo yosIronHarefemale 2012rabjyung 17 lo 26chu pho 'brugWaterDragonmale 2013rabjyung 17 lo 27chu mo sbrulWaterSnakefemale 2014rabjyung 17 lo 28shing pho rtaWoodHorsemale 2015rabjyung 17 lo 29shing mo lugWoodSheepfemale 2016rabjyung 17 lo 30me pho spreFireMonkeymale 2017rabjyung 17 lo 31me mo byaFireBirdfemale 2018rabjyung 17 lo 32sa pho khyiEarthDogmale 2019rabjyung 17 lo 33sa mo phagEarthBoarfemale 2020rabjyung 17 lo 34lcags pho byiIronRatmale 2021rabjyung 17 lo 35lcags mo glangIronOxfemale 2022rabjyung 17 lo 36chu pho stagWaterTigermale 2023rabjyung 17 lo 37chu mo yosWaterHarefemale 2024rabjyung 17 lo 38shing pho 'brugWoodDragonmale 2025rabjyung 17 lo 39shing mo sbrulWoodSnakefemale 2026rabjyung 17 lo 40me pho rtaFireHorsemale 2027rabjyung 17 lo 41me mo lugFireSheepfemale

### Years with cardinal numbers

Three relatively modern notations of cardinal numbers are used for Tibetan years.
On Tibetan banknotes from the first half of the 20th century cardinal numbers can be seen, with year 1 in 255 CE, which is a reference to the legendary 28th Emperor of Tibet, Thothori Nyantsen.
Since the second half of the 20th century another year notation has been used, where the year of, for example, 2025 CE coincides with the Tibetan year of 2152. This relatively modern year notation is referred to as Bö Gyello (bod rgyal lo). In this era the first year is 127 BCE, dated to the legendary progenitor of the Yarlung dynasty, 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 raplo, where the first year coincides with the first year of the rabjyung-cycle, that is 1027. Rab lo 928, for example, is the year of 1954 on the western Gregorian calendar.
    Year (Gregorian)Epoch 127 BCEEpoch 255Epoch 1027 From about February/March 201921461765993 From about February/March 202021471766994 From about February/March 202121481767995 From about February/March 202221491768996 From about February/March 202321501769997 From about February/March 202421511770998 From about February/March 202521521771999 From about February/March 2026215317721000

## Months

During the time of the Tibetan Empire (7th – 9th century) Tibetan months (Tibetan: ཟླ་བ་, Wylie: zla ba, THL: dawa) 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 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), sprel (Monkey), bya (Bird), khyi (Dog), phag (Boar), byi ba (Rat), and glang (Ox).
With the introduction of the calendar of the 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:
* 1st: Chu (mchu, Skt. māgha)
* 2nd: Wo (dbo, Skt. phālguna)
* 3rd: Nagpa (nag pa, Skt. caitra)
* 4th: Saga (sa ga, Skt. vaiśākha)
* 5th: Nön (snron, Skt. jyeṣṭha)
* 6th: Chutö (chu stod, Skt. āṣāḍha)
* 7th: Drozhin (gro bzhin, Skt. śrāvaṇa)
* 8th: Trum (khrums, Skt. bhādrapada)
* 9th: Takar (tha skar, Skt. āśvina)
* 10th: Mindrug (smin drug, Skt. kārttika)
* 11th: Go (mgo, Skt. mārgaśīrṣa)
* 12th: Gyal (rgyal, Skt. pauṣa)
In the second half of the 13th century the famous ruler Drogön Chögyal Phagpa introduced the system of counting the month by ordinal numbers, the so-called Hor "Mongolian" month:
| 1st Hor month (hor-zla dang-po) 2nd Hor month (hor-zla gnyis-pa) 3rd Hor month (hor-zla gsum-pa) 4th Hor month (hor-zla bzhi-pa) 5th Hor month (hor-zla lnga-pa) 6th Hor month (hor-zla drug-pa) | 7th Hor month (hor-zla bdun-pa) 8th Hor month (hor-zla brgyad-pa) 9th Hor month (hor-zla dgu-pa) 10th Hor month (hor-zla bcu-pa) 11th Hor month (hor-zla bcu-gcig-pa) 12th Hor month (hor-zla bcu-gnyis-pa) |
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 (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 (Tibetan: གཟའ, Wylie: gza') are named for astronomical objects.
    DayTibetan (Wylie)Phonetic transcriptionObject Sundayགཟའ་ཉི་མ་ (gza' nyi ma)nyimaSun Mondayགཟའ་ཟླ་བ་ (gza' zla wa)dawaMoon Tuesdayགཟའ་མིག་དམར་ (gza' mig dmar)MikmarMars Wednesdayགཟའ་ལྷག་པ་ (gza' lhak pa)LhakpaMercury Thursdayགཟའ་ཕུར་བུ། (gza' phur bu)PurbuJupiter Fridayགཟའ་པ་སངས་ (gza' pa sangs)PasangVenus Saturdayགཟའ་སྤེན་པ་ (gza' spen ba)PenbaSaturn
Nyima "Sun", Dawa "Moon" and Lhakpa "Mercury" are common personal names for people born on Sunday, Monday or Wednesday respectively.

## History

During the time of the Tibetan Empire, the twelve months were named according to the four seasons of the year, and the year started in spring.
Tibetans historically used the Indian astrological system, Tib. kar rtsis, that divided the days into rhythms defined by the elements and the constellations, and later used a Chinese astrological system, Tib. byung rtsis, which focuses on twelve animals and the five elements to describe patterns of events. The Indian and Chinese systems were joined by the Buddha's teachings found within the Sutra Avatamsakra and the Tantra Kalachakra to develop the Tibetan astrological calendar.
Beginning in the 12th century, the years were named after the 12 animals common in the Chinese zodiac.
The translation of the Kalachakra Tantra in the late 11th century CE marked the beginning of a change of Tibet's calendar. This tantra references the Indian astronomical calendar system with its calculations that follow the progression of the constellations - the five planets, and the sun and moon eclipses.
As the original teachings of the Kalacakra were taught by the Buddha himself, two hundred years later, the Kalacakra calendar was officially adopted as an Tibetan calendar by the Ü-Tsang king Drogön Chögyal Phagpa, in the second half of the 13th century.
A distinct Tibetan calendar was developed in 1284 by the lineage of the Gyalwang Karmapas, the Tsurphu tradition calendar. This Tsurluk calendar is based on the 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje's astrological treatise called The Compendium of Astrology (Tib. rtsis kun bsdus pa), a treatise from which many later treatises authored by the subsequent Karmapas and by Jamgon Kongtrul the Great evolved. The Tsurluk calendar is still overseen by Tsipa Gelek Dhargay, at the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje's seat in Rumtek, Sikkim, India.
In 1447, a Tibetan astrologer Phukpa Lhündrub Gyatso composed an astrological treatise called The Oral Teachings of Pundarika (Tib. pad dkar zhal lung). His work founded the Phukpa calendar which is the main calendar of Tibet. This main Tibetan calendar, the Phukpa, was modified many times during the subsequent centuries, and it remains a luni-solar calendar.