Lhasa's Noble Clan at the New Year: The Dokhar Family's Celebration
Born in 1927 into the Dokhar family (མདོ་མཁར།), Tsarong Yangchen Dolkar (ཚ་རོང་དབྱངས་ཅན་སྒྲོལ་དཀར།) was the daughter of Phuntsok Rabgyas (ཕུན་ཚོགས་རབ་རྒྱས།) and Rinchen Putri (རིག་འཛིན་བུ་འཁྲིད།). Her father had served as a Kalon and was later given the rank of Lieutenant General in the People's Liberation Army. Her mother, the eldest daughter of the Tsarong family, belonged to a collateral line of Sikkim's royal house. In 1941, she married Dondul Namgyal (བདུད་འདུལ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ།), the eldest son of Tsarong Dazang Dündul.
A month before, preparations typically began for Losar, which in my memory of the New Year was the most important event of the year. The first step was producing various fried dough snacks called "khasé" (ཁུ་ཁོག), excellent as offerings to deities and essential as refreshments for guests. Each year, in our Dokhar household, a stove was set up, a large pot placed in the stable, and one woman was tasked with an entire week of making these pastries.
Nearly two thousand pieces were fried each year, with all the flour and oil supplied by our family estate in the Racha area east of Lhasa. A large iron wok was used for frying, holding a blend of butter and rapeseed oil. The assortment of fried dough snacks was extensive, featuring many shapes and kinds, including Kukuo (donkey ears), Nyakshak (long strips), Ledok, Bulu (rings), Bindo (small pieces), and others. Meanwhile, the mansion also began undergoing repair and decoration on both its interior and exterior.
According to Tibetan custom, a rectangular drape known as "Tashi Chandar" (བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཁྲ་རིང་།) is hung on the rooftop during festive occasions to symbolize good fortune and fulfillment. This auspicious streamer, assembled from cut and pieced colored silk and cotton fabrics, was also suspended high on our roof. Meanwhile, the walls were given a fresh coat of whitewash, the window frames were repainted black, and the victory banners and drapes on the rooftop shrine platform were replaced.
The Dekha custom traces its origins to the sacrificial slaughter practices of ancient Tibetans, later evolving into offerings shaped from dough. During construction on the offering table, the Kukuo (donkey ear pastries) are initially placed face down and stacked steadily in pairs. Meanwhile, inside the mansion, fresh door curtains and drapes had replaced the old ones, and in the wide courtyard, the Eight Auspicious Symbols (བཀྲ་ཤིས་རྟགས་བརྒྱད།) were carefully drawn with white lime.
Essential tasks included assembling the Chema box, readying the tea and liquor offerings, and blending sweet rice with ginseng fruit. As for the structure itself, Nyakshak strips and Ledok were arranged first, followed by Bindo at the very top. After the Dekha was constructed, a range of valuable items—both dried and fresh fruits, brown sugar, rock sugar, tea bricks, and butter—were set all around it.
The Chema box is made of wood, carved or painted with auspicious patterns, mostly the Eight Auspicious Symbols, the Six Long-Life Symbols (ཚེ་རིང་རྣམ་དྲུག), and the Four Harmonious Brothers (མཐུན་པ་སྤུན་བཞི།). These were the main offerings for the New Year. Lively "Guthuk" Two days before the New Year, the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth Tibetan month, is known as "Gutor" (དགུ་གཏོར།).
At the Potala Palace, monks from Namgyal Monastery carry out elaborate cham dances in the eastern courtyard on this day, accompanied by a major exorcism rite known as གཏོར་རྒྱག. Within the venue, a cauldron of boiling oil sat heating in one corner. Black-hat sorcerers, gripping silver bowls filled with barley liquor, recited mantras before pouring the liquid into the searing oil, causing flames to leap upward instantly. A canvas bearing depictions of evil spirits was then hurled forcefully into the blaze, serving as a symbol of the thorough banishment of all that is inauspicious.
On the night of this occasion, every home in Lhasa city would consume "Guthuk" barley porridge. Subsequently, a skull-decorated torma would be carried to the stele at the Potala Palace's entrance and set ablaze together with a haystack. Concurrently, Tashilhunpo Monastery and other major monasteries across the Ü-Tsang region would perform the identical ritual, uniting in prayers for peace and well-being in the year ahead.
Inside the porridge, nine dough balls were specially made, each with a tiny slip of paper inside that had a single word written on it. Those words were Sun, Moon, Cotton, Salt, Coal, White Porcelain, Pea, Chili, and Carrying Karmic Debt (ལན་ཆགས་རྒྱབ་ཁུར།). One dough ball went into every person's bowl, and afterwards the whole group would jokingly read one another's fortunes from whatever word was found on that slip.
People would constantly compare, link, and joke about what they had drawn, which made for a highly entertaining mood. For instance, a draw of White Porcelain or Cotton indicated a compassionate nature; Sun and Moon represented good fortune and joy; Salt signaled being burdened by cares; Coal implied someone who was perilous; Pea suggested a quick-tempered personality; Chili portrayed a person as cruel and sharp; and "Carrying Karmic Debt" signified that the year ahead might be full of difficulties.
Each person was given a small human-shaped dough figure (dri-lu), which had been formed from extra dough prior to the porridge being consumed. The figure was pressed against the body, with particular attention to areas of pain or illness, as a way to symbolically shift the person’s sickness and bad luck into the dough. Afterward, all the figures were gathered into a single container, along with another dough effigy representing an evil spirit, and a small amount of the barley porridge soup was added to it.
New Year's Day Feast. On the evening of the thirtieth day of the twelfth month, we children could barely contain our excitement for the approaching New Year. The Guthuk evening rituals had just been brought to a successful close after a lit bundle of highland barley straw was gently waved through every room to symbolize the removal of all misfortune and evil spirits, and was then thrown out onto the street together with the dough container.
The first day of the New Year had finally arrived. At five o'clock in the morning, the whole household—servants included—began waking up and changing into their carefully prepared festive clothes. I wore a brand-new chuba, and my hair was plaited into long braids called "Janglo" (ལྕང་ལོ།). I also recall that one year, long before my nanny was ready to turn in for the night, I rushed into her room and kept pestering her to play with me. In the end, she only gave me a playful scolding, and I had to creep back to my own room to sleep.
At that time, mother's headdress was said to be the most renowned in all of Lhasa. She herself was attired in her complete noblewoman's finery, with a "Barko" headdress from the Tsang region worn upon her head. Father, meanwhile, changed into his brand-new official robe. Once both were fully dressed, the family's first act was to go to the Gonkhang of the Dokhar mansion and make offerings. Thereafter, in the main hall of the Dokhar mansion, sitting cushions (བཞུགས་གྲལ།) had been laid out in order of rank, and each family member took the seat that corresponded to their position.
The ceremony began with tea and sweet rice flavored with ginseng fruit for all. Following that, servants approached each guest in turn, bearing the Chema box and fine silver bowls filled with barley liquor. In response, we each took a small pinch of grain from the Chema, casting it upward, before wetting our ring finger in the liquor and flicking it skyward two or three times. In this manner, the Chema greeting and the liquor offering were duly performed.
Following that, the steward of the Dokhar mansion, together with all the servants, held khatas and respectfully offered them to the family seated at the main table. After the New Year greetings were delivered, each servant returned to their own home to carry out their own smaller New Year observances. Most of these servants had families in Lhasa, and although their ceremonies were more modest in scale, the procedures were largely identical.
That day, relatives close to the Dokhar household, along with friendly aristocratic families and merchants, would arrive in succession to offer New Year's greetings. In return, we presented them with fried dough treats prepared for the holiday. The outer courtyard corridors of the Dokhar mansion housed many tenants, and it was our duty to call on each of their homes in turn, extending the Chema greeting and the ceremonial offering of liquor.
At their houses, I noticed Dekha offerings piled up in neat stacks, and the stoves and water storage pots had white lime drawn around them, with pure white khatas tied on as well—signs of good fortune found ubiquitously. In my view, everything felt wholly unlike an ordinary day, striking me as especially novel and engaging. After the family get-together came to an end, Father would head to the Jokhang Temple to pay his respects, then go on to the Potala Palace to take part in the Kashag government's New Year ceremony, and he did not come back home until roughly two o'clock in the afternoon.
For us children, playtime began upon our return to the Dokhar mansion. Among the games then popular in Lhasa were "Boli" (འབོ་ལི།, marbles), skipping rope (ཐག་མཆོང་།), "Aju" (ཨ་ཅུག, knucklebones), and shuttlecock kicking (ཐེབས་པད།). When we played "Boli" (marbles), a hole was dug in the ground first, and coins were placed inside. The referee would then indicate the target to aim for. In a group of six or seven players, each would contribute five or six coins. As for us, however, we had gone separately with Mother to worship at the Jokhang Temple.
Girls, however, preferred jumping rope. As for the coin game, the player needed to hit the exact target while avoiding contact with any other coins; succeeding meant taking the entire pot. That game was highly engaging. Additionally, there was "Aju", a game using sheep or goat knucklebones, which was enjoyable and intriguing. Those knucklebones were colored—green, red, and yellow—to serve as markers.
For shuttlecocks, we used to ask the people who transported bodies to the sky burial site for vulture tail feathers. The game itself had many different versions. The bone's more worn and protruding side was named "donkey", and the opposite side was named "horse"; the round side was "sheep", and the concave side was "goat". While throwing, one was not allowed to touch another player's bones. The outcome was determined by which "animal" was face-up after landing and by the count of successful hits.
At times, the sky burial master would pluck a few tail feathers from the vultures while feeding them and offer them for sale. On the streets of Lhasa, shuttlecocks in a range of colors could be purchased as well. We used to attach a little bell to each shuttlecock, so that it rang with every kick. Among the tenants living in the Dokhar mansion, several girls could kick the shuttlecock more than a hundred times in a row without letting it fall. It was genuinely impressive. We would also go door to door to visit relatives and friends, carrying the Chema box and liquor bowls to share good wishes.
The hustle and bustle stayed lively until evening fell. Returning to the courtyard of the Dokhar mansion, the adults—often completely drunk—would break into song and dance, filling the place with exuberant noise and delight. Meanwhile, during the New Year, various groups went door to door asking for alms: the Rakgyabpa and Rakgyab Ama (རག་རྒྱབ་དང་རག་རྒྱབ་ཨ་མ།), the Drekar (འབྲས་དཀར།), and certain beggars. In the Lhasa area, the Rakgyabpa and Rakgyab Ama worked as dam maintenance laborers, and they also took on the task of handling corpses.
During festivals, the Drekar, who would go door to door singing auspicious greetings, were regarded as an auspicious omen. In line with tradition, we gave them alms of fried dough snacks, money, and khatas. Third Day Prayer Flags — in the Lhasa area, the custom of hanging Lungta prayer flags and performing Sang smoke offerings was also observed on the third and fourth days of the first Tibetan month.
Apart from holding rituals on their own rooftops, individuals customarily went to Mount Gephel Utsé, located behind Drepung Monastery, or to the summit of Vase Mountain across the southern bank of the Lhasa River to make these offerings. Prior to this, Sang smoke offerings were also conducted along the Lhasa River's banks. This practice was held in high regard by Tibetan people, who believed it brought significant benefits to both personal fortune and family prosperity. The Lungta prayer flags consist of cloth in five colors.
The most profound and vivid Losar memory from my childhood is this: the official main New Year festivities ended after the third day. As for the colors, each one has its own symbolism—blue stands for the sky, yellow for the earth, green for water, red for the wind, and white for metal.