Tibetan Calendar

The Tibetan calendar is officially entered into force in 1027, and used since then. Its creation was largely related to the people who brought civilization of Central Plains in Tibet.

In the beginning, the Tibetans used a different system of calculation. According to the records, Tibet had its own calendar before the first century BC. The AD method was very simple, based on a system of lunar months based on the full moon, new moon and half moon. In this system, the New Year's Day was the first day of the eleventh month of the current Tibetan calendar. It was the timing of the good religion. An almanac of that era has been discovered in the region Lhoka. This ancient calendar condense the wealth of knowledge of Tibetans with regard to agriculture and astronomy at the time, and it would influence the Tibetan astronomical calendar.

When Princess Wencheng Tang traveled to Tibet, she brought many books, some of which dealt with astronomy and the calendar, which has played a role in the development of the Tibetan calendar. Instead of serving time to set the lunar New Year, we took the position of the stars as a reference point. Some regions still Xigaze observe the New Year according to the method of calculation. From the ninth century, the Tibetan calendar began to resemble that of the Han, and under Phagpa (1235-1280) that saw its greatest development. The New Year period was determined, the year was divided into 12 months (30 days for "large" number of months and 29 days for "small"). It was also

added an extra month every 1 000 days to keep the balance between the months and seasons. The Tibetan calendar uses the twelve signs of the zodiac, and years are calculated using the 12 terrestrial branches (rat, beef, etc..) That are combined with the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water ). This creates five cycles of 12 years, which form a cycle of 60 years called "rabchung", introduced in 1027.