Traditional calendar colors Tibetans' world
Source: Xinhua |
October 8, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE first "book" Tsering Dondrup read as a child was a Tibetan calendar his parents used to consult for weather information and ideal dates for ploughing and harvesting.
"We had a new booklet every year. The colors of the covers varied, but there was always a delicate painting of cattle ploughing the fields in early spring," remembers Tsering Dondrup, a Lhasa resident whose hair is now gray.
As he aged, he learned that years in the Tibetan calendar were identified with different colors including white, black, green, yellow and red. Yellow is for the year of the earth, while blue, green and red stand for water, wood and fire respectively," he says. The year 2012, for example, is the "Year of the Water Dragon," so the corresponding calendar has a blue cover.
But the cattle ploughing scenes hold much greater significance, he says of the calendars, which bear a fascinating history and continuing practical use often overlooked among more prominent elements of Chinese culture.
"The colors and postures of the cattle's head, horns, mouth, hooves and tail tell the weather conditions of different periods of the year and help farmers decide the time for ploughing and harvest," Tsering Dondrup explains. When the cattle's head is painted green, it often forecasts heavy wind in spring. Yellow legs indicate a good harvest in valleys, whereas a blue belly suggests ample rain and potential flooding.
The herder on the cattle's back can be a child, a middle-aged or elderly man.
"The herder on this year's calendar, for example, is a boy," Tsering Dondrup says. "This shows the year is auspicious for children but could be ominous for adults." The boy's green Tibetan robe and white waistbelt are a sign of economic downturn, he says.
A typical Tibetan calendar often has an overview of the year's climate, astrological phenomena and potential calamities, as well as a more detailed list of do's and don'ts for each day and month, according to Tsetop, deputy head of the institute of astrology and calendar calculation, a research body of the Lhasa-based Hospital of Tibetan Medicine.
"It provides an important timeline for Tibetans to figure out when to grow crops and harvest and what diseases may attack at different times of the year," he says.
More than 300,000 copies of the Tibetan calendar are printed every year. The booklets, popular in Tibet and other Tibetan communities in Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan provinces, are also sold to Bhutan and Nepal.
"We had a new booklet every year. The colors of the covers varied, but there was always a delicate painting of cattle ploughing the fields in early spring," remembers Tsering Dondrup, a Lhasa resident whose hair is now gray.
As he aged, he learned that years in the Tibetan calendar were identified with different colors including white, black, green, yellow and red. Yellow is for the year of the earth, while blue, green and red stand for water, wood and fire respectively," he says. The year 2012, for example, is the "Year of the Water Dragon," so the corresponding calendar has a blue cover.
But the cattle ploughing scenes hold much greater significance, he says of the calendars, which bear a fascinating history and continuing practical use often overlooked among more prominent elements of Chinese culture.
"The colors and postures of the cattle's head, horns, mouth, hooves and tail tell the weather conditions of different periods of the year and help farmers decide the time for ploughing and harvest," Tsering Dondrup explains. When the cattle's head is painted green, it often forecasts heavy wind in spring. Yellow legs indicate a good harvest in valleys, whereas a blue belly suggests ample rain and potential flooding.
The herder on the cattle's back can be a child, a middle-aged or elderly man.
"The herder on this year's calendar, for example, is a boy," Tsering Dondrup says. "This shows the year is auspicious for children but could be ominous for adults." The boy's green Tibetan robe and white waistbelt are a sign of economic downturn, he says.
A typical Tibetan calendar often has an overview of the year's climate, astrological phenomena and potential calamities, as well as a more detailed list of do's and don'ts for each day and month, according to Tsetop, deputy head of the institute of astrology and calendar calculation, a research body of the Lhasa-based Hospital of Tibetan Medicine.
"It provides an important timeline for Tibetans to figure out when to grow crops and harvest and what diseases may attack at different times of the year," he says.
More than 300,000 copies of the Tibetan calendar are printed every year. The booklets, popular in Tibet and other Tibetan communities in Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan provinces, are also sold to Bhutan and Nepal.
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