China Travel Deals, China Tourist, China Vacation, Chinese Travel

TibetLe Tibetan calendar entered officially in force in 1027, and one uses it since then. His creation is bound extensively to the people who introduced the civilization of the Plains central to Tibet.

To the origin, the Tibetans used a system different of calculation. According to the registers, Tibet possessed its own calendar before the Ier century J. ave – C. The method of calculation was very simple, based on a system of lunar months established according to the full moon, the new moon and the crescent moon. In this system, New Year’s Day corresponded on the first day of the eleventh month of the present Tibetan calendar. It was the calendar of the religion good. An almanac of this time has even been discovered in the region of Lhoka. This former calendar condensed the rich knowledge of the Tibetans at that moment concerning agriculture and astronomy, and it went will influence the Tibetan astronomical calendar.

When princess Wencheng of the Tang went to Tibet, she had brought a lot of works, of which some were about astronomy and the calendar, what played a role in the development of the Tibetan calendar. Instead of using the lunar periods to fix the New Year, one took the position of the stars as point of reference. Some regions of Xigazê observe the New Year again according to this method of calculation. From the IXe century, the Tibetan calendar began to look like the one of the Hans, and it is under Phagpa (1235-1280) that it knew his biggest development. The period of the New Year was determined, the year was divided in 12 months (30 days for them " big" months and 29 days for them " small"). One also has

added a supplementary month every 1 000 days about to keep the balance between the months and the seasons. The Tibetan calendar uses the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the years are calculated as having resorts to the 12 terrestrial branches that one combines to the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water). It creates five cycles of 12 years, what forms a cycle of 60 years called " rabchung", introduces in 1027.