Bylakuppe: It is celebration time at Tibetan settlement at Bylakuppe of Mysuru district on the way to Kodagu now as it is their New Year — Losar. Losar 2149, the year of water tiger festivities, is observed from Mar. 3 to 6.

The festival began on Mar. 3 and the entire settlement is wearing a festive look with decked up streets, colourful corners and people wearing new clothes. It is also a time when one could witness and taste the best of the Tibetan cuisines and culture. Festivities will prevail   for 15 days.

Losar marks the beginning of the New Year as per the Tibetan calendar. Tibetans offered prayers at the Buddhist temples before engaging in the festivities. “Last two years, the festival was celebrated on a low scale due to COVID. This year we made elaborate preparations for celebrating the New Year ranging from cleaning and whitewashing our homes to preparing traditional delicacies,” said a few residents.

The festival is marked with ancient ceremonies that represent the struggle between good and evil and it is celebrated with religious fervour to ward off evil spirits and welcome the New Year with hope and joy.

According to elders at Bylakuppe, the term ‘Lo’ in the Tibetan language means year and ‘Sar’ means new. The festival begins on the day of a new moon that marks the first day of the first month on the Tibetan calendar.

Losar is that time of the year when thousands of Tibetans and their homes are filled with the spirit of joy and jubilation.

Bylakuppe — with over 30 camps and over 43,000 people — is the second largest Tibetan settlement in the world outside Tibet after Dharamshala.

In fact, Mysuru has one more Tibetan settlement at Gurupura near Hunsur. Tibetans have lived in harmony with the people of Karnataka and intermingled with each other, in the last few decades.

Before the Tibetans celebrated Losar, they observed the Gutor festival where Buddhist monks conducted special prayers. The festival was inaugurated at Tashi Lhunpo monastery and the highlight of this year’s festival was the presence of the Lok Sabha Member from Ladakh Jamyang Tsering Namgyal.

As part of the celebrations, monks wore tiger masks and artistes — dressed in brightly patterned attire and masks — performed the Monastic Cham Dance. It is a highly choreographed dance where a select group of the resident monks will perform as directed by the mystic dance master. In the evening, a special ritual was performed where different articles made for the occasion (representing bad things of the previous year) were set on fire to symbolically destroy negative powers.