Do Tibetans Celebrate Birthdays? Customs of Birth in Tibetan Culture
The 18th-century "The Six Longevity Panels" was collected by Robert and Lois Baylls, while the 19th-century version is held by the Buryat History Museum. Regarding life and death, Tibetans today, no matter their age, also observe birthdays by eating cakes and blowing out candles. Traditionally, however, birthdays were less emphasized in Tibetan culture, which placed greater importance on the observation and contemplation of death.
In former times, a blessed Tibetan would go through four significant ceremonies in a lifetime: the birth ceremony, the hair cutting ceremony, the wedding ceremony, and the eightieth birthday celebration. This shows that Tibetan culture is not devoid of birth ceremonies; indeed, three of these rites relate to 'birth'. The Old Man of Tibet.
Image source: Pinterest Furthermore, owing to the advancement of conventional astrology, Tibetans prioritize the relationship between zodiac signs and constellations over birth dates alone, and they connect this to their daily routines. As an example, they hold that on their soul day (བླ་གཟའ) and longevity day (སྲོག་གཟའ), undertakings tend to proceed more smoothly; conversely, on inauspicious days (གཤེད་གཟའ), they endeavor to engage in additional good deeds to prevent misfortune.
For those born in the year of the rat, Wednesday is their soul day, Tuesday their longevity day, and Saturday their inauspicious day. These three days differ depending on each person's zodiac sign. In the "Abhidharmakosha," the cyclic diagram of form and elements shows a clear, empty sky at the base, where the wind wheel first emerges. Above this, a solid golden cloud forms the water wheel. Through the wind's movement across the water wheel, a golden foundation comes into being.
With regard to birth, if one asks how traditional Tibetans observe birthdays, a representative case appears in a brief entry from the historical work "Bal Shyak" about the birth of Prince Chagsam Deutsen. From a Buddhist standpoint, the realm of Samsara will eventually be destroyed by earth, water, fire, and wind. At the core of the cosmic foundation stands Mount Sumeru, encircled by seven layers of golden mountains, a vast ocean of milk, the four continents, and various smaller islands.
Contemporary scholars have expressed doubts about the composition date and certain contents of this text, yet that does not prevent us from gaining a glimpse into birthday celebrations as seen through the lens of Buddhist culture. The book recounts: "When the prince was born, the king, filled with joy, commanded that 108 stupas be built overnight. He then said, 'Using the leftover mud, construct another stupa bearing our likeness,' and so a further stupa, embellished with nets, bells, and other ornaments, came to be.
Chisong Dêzain, 19th century, Rubin Museum of Art in New York. In the modern era, Tibetans who adhere to tradition continue to celebrate various holidays through practices like animal release, sponsorship, and stupa consecration.
When birth is considered in its strict sense—the moment the mother delivers—the rugged and vibrant nature of the plateau is likewise evident in Tibetan culture. Observers look at whether the delivery is natural, whether the umbilical cord encircles the neck, whether the infant's cry is strong, and whether the baby sucks vigorously, using these signs to judge the newborn's health and auspiciousness.
The “Blue Lapis Lazuli Tibetan Medicine Thangka: Human Body Development Chart” originates from Menzikang, Lhasa, in the first half of the 20th century. The following words are then sung and recited: “You are the child of my heart, may you live long and see all the ups and downs of the world, may you overcome all obstacles, and live a life of happiness and prosperity.” (བདག་གི་བུ་ཁྱོད་སྙིང་ལས་སྐྱེས་པ་ཡིན། ། ལོ་བརྒྱ་འཚོ་ཞིང་སྟོན་བརྒྱ་མཐོང་གྱུར་ཅིག ། ཚེ་རིང་དཔལ་ཐོབ་ངན་དགུ་ཐུབ་པ་དང་། ། མི་ནོར་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་སྐྱིད་ཕུན་ཚོགས་ཤོག །).
Following birth, the mother feeds the baby mashed barley soup, primarily to spark the infant's appetite and ease them into their traditional diet so they eat well and develop properly. Meanwhile, the baby is bathed in butter and kept in the sunlight; this butter bath helps shield the skin from the chapping caused by the cold climate of the Tibetan region and keeps it hydrated.
For a boy, the celebration ceremony is held on the third day after birth; for a girl, it takes place on the fourth. The first ritual is shaving the baby's lanugo. Guests then arrive carrying fresh butter and a bag of mashed barley, and they place a small amount of both on the baby's forehead, conveying wishes for good health and prosperity.
The head-shaving ceremony, referred to as "མནོལ་སྟོན" in Tibetan, involves a respected elder shaving a child's hair when they reach the age of three. As for the mashed barley, rural Tibetans regard it as a sacred, life-sustaining substance, and applying it to a baby's forehead is likely seen as a deeply sincere and lasting blessing; it may also serve to smooth the baby's forehead wrinkles and safeguard delicate skin. This is referenced in the "Blue Lapis Lazuli Tibetan Thangka: Human Development Chart," along with details on Lhasa Mendikang from the first half of the 20th century, including midwifery (སྐྱེ་བསུ་) and doula (སྐྱེ་གཡོག་) practices.
A coming-of-age ritual, usually performed at fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen years of age, exists alongside the head-shaving ceremony. In the latter, only a small tuft of hair is left at the back of the child's head. During this ceremony, an elder offers a prayer for the child's future success and prosperity.
Although a Tibetan proverb says, "At fifteen, a boy can make decisions without consulting his father, and at fifteen, a girl can cook without her mother's help," girls' coming-of-age ceremonies are often more elaborate, featuring traditional headpieces, braided hair, and symbolic women's clothing. These rites recognize a girl's passage into adulthood and signal her readiness for marriage. Children of Tibet.
In Tibetan attire, a white woolen vest bearing a sun, moon, and swastika symbol on its back ranks among the most auspicious garments, as only people in their eighties are permitted to wear it. In Tibetan, this day is known as "Eighty White Clothes," and for it, elderly individuals celebrating their longevity must dress up in the morning in a new outfit: a white undershirt, a blue belt tied around the waist, a white felt hat, patterned long boots, and a red rope they carry. (Eighty white robes; image source: Pinterest)
An additional traditional practice has the elderly recite, for good luck, the verses of the long-lived general Amichagan (སྤྱི་དཔོན་རོང་ཚ་ཁྲ་རྒན) from the epic King Gesar. On this same day, the younger generation congratulates its elders on their longevity, while the elders wish the young prosperity and all else that is auspicious (ཡ། བྱིས་པ་ཚོ་འདབ་ལག་རྒྱས་པའི་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཤོག ། གཞོན་པ་རྣམས་ཚེ་ཐག་རིང་བའི་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཤོག ། བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཀུན་གྱི་བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཤོག）
Amichagan （སྤྱི་དཔོན་རོང་ཚ་ཁྲ་རྒན） The celebration of one's 80th birthday usually takes place on the 3rd or 13th day of each month. Some scholars have argued that this practice reflects the three young stages—youth, young adulthood, and middle age—yet it could instead stem from the numerical worship present in Tibetan culture.
In "Critical Points of Life Transitions - The Mother Theme of Number 13 and Tibetan Coming-of-Age Ceremony," the author highlights the importance of the number 13, which is rooted in the Bon faith, across various historical eras in Tibetan literature and creative works. To put it plainly, this form of numerical reverence is not confined to Tibetan culture; it is also directly connected to the Bon faith and the primitive culture held in high regard by the Mosuo people, who live near Lugu Lake along the border between Yunnan and Sichuan.
Rise above the hush of death. This number's auspicious significance is more directly linked to the 'King Gesar' epic. Works cited: 'Ba Xie' Lin Jifu: 'Critical Points of Life Turning: The Mother Theme Number 'Thirteen' and Tibetan Rite of Passage'; Tang Duoxian: 'On Headwear in Tibetan Life Rites'; Jia Li: 'Traditional Tibetan Marriage and Fertility Culture'.
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