TIBETAN CALENDAR

The 'Tibetan calendar' is a lunisolar calendar, that is, the Tibetan year is composed of either 12 or 13 lunar months, each beginning and ending with a new moon. A thirteenth month is added approximately every three years, so that an average Tibetan year is equal to the solar year. The months have no names, but are referred to by their numbers.
The Tibetan New Year celebration is Losar.
Each year is associated with an animal and an element. The animals alternate in the following order:

Hare

Dragon

Snake

Horse

Sheep

Ape

Bird

Dog

Pig

Mouse

Bull

Tiger

The elements alternate in the following order:

Fire

Earth

Iron

Water

Wood

Each element is associated with two consecutive years, first in its male aspect, then in its female aspect. For example, a 'male Earth-Dragon' year is followed by a 'female Earth-Snake' year, then by a 'male Iron-Horse' year. The sex may be omitted, as it can be inferred from the animal.
The element-animal designations recur in cycles of 60 years, starting with a (female) 'Fire-Hare' year. These big cycles are numbered. The first cycle started in 1027. Therefore, 2005 roughly corresponds to the (female) 'Wood-Bird' year of the 17th cycle.

Contents

Days of the week

References

Days of the week

The days of the week are named for celestial bodies.

Day	Tibetan (Wylie)	Phonetic transcription	Object
Sunday	གཟའ་ཉི་མ་ (''gza' nyi ma'')	Sa nyi-ma	Sun
Monday	གཟའ་ཟླ་བ་ (''gza' zla ba'')	Sa da-wa	Moon
Tuesday	གཟའ་མིག་དབར་ (''gza' mig dmar'')	Sa Mik-mar	Mars
Wednesday	གཟའ་ལྷག་པ་ (''gza' lhak pa'')	Sa Lhak-ba	Mercury
Thursday	གཟའ་ཕུར་པུ་ (''gza' phur bu'')	Sa Phur-bu	Jupiter
Friday	གཟའ་པ་སངས་ (''gza' pa sangs'')	Sa Ba-sang	Venus
Saturday	གཟའ་སྤེན་པ་ (''gza' spen pa'')	Sa ben-ba	Saturn

Nyima "Sun", Dawa "Moon" and Lhagpa "Mercury" are common personal names for people born on Sunday, Monday or Wednesday respectively.

References

★ Tibet is my Country, Norbu, Thubten & Harrer, Heinrich, , , Readers Union, Rupert Hart-Davis, 1960,

★ Tibet: A Political History, Shakabpa, Tsepon W.D., , , Yale University Press, 1967,

★ Manual of Standard Tibetan: Language and Civilization, Tournadre, Nicolas & Sangda Dorje, , , Snow Lion Publications, 2003,