The Tradition of ‘Gu-thug’ Before Losar

As Losar (Tibetan New Year) is quickly approaching this year on February 14, and Tibetans in Tibet and all over the world are proudly asserting their Tibetan identity, what better way to start the year 2137 with a traditional bowl of hot steaming Gu-thug on Friday evening? 

High Peaks Pure Earth would not want anyone to partake in this tradition without knowing the ins and outs! High Peaks Pure Earth is therefore very grateful to Tsering Dhondup for allowing us to post his translation of "The Tradition of ‘Gu-thug’ before Losar" taken from "The Collected Works of Chabpel Tseten Phuntsog" ('chab spel tshe brtan phun tshog gi gsung rtsom phyogs sgrigs') and first published by China Tibet Educational Publishing House ('krung goi bod kyi she rig dpar skrun khang) in 1993. This article has also previously appeared in a newsletter published by Tibet Foundation, based in London.

Many Tibetans will be spending Gu-thug night far from home. Below, High Peaks Pure Earth has posted a 2008 video made by Tibetans studying in universities in Beijing. The video shows them preparing Gu-thug together and playing games. The video has three songs as its soundtrack, two Tibetan songs and one Chinese song. The first Tibetan song is by exile Tibetan pop star Phurbu T Namgyal called "Phayul Mayul", meaning "Fatherland, Motherland" and the second Tibetan song is by the most prominent Tibetan singers in Tibet, Yadong, Kunga, Tsewang and Gangshuk called, "Sems Kyis Log Phebs", meaning "Mentally Return". Both songs urge Tibetans to unite and assert their identity strongly.



On the eve of the pen-ultimate day of the outgoing year, i.e. the 29th day of the twelfth month according to the Tibetan calendar, most Tibetans in and outside Tibet uphold an ancient folk tradition by having a family get-together for a special dinner called ‘Gu-thug’. Many people wrongly think that 'Gu-thog' derives its name from the nine different ingredients added to the broth when in fact it's a reference to the 'thugpa' taken on the 29th day.

This ritual symbolises the banishment of all evil and malevolent spirits that may be lurking in the house-hold. It appears to be a form of ancient folk rather than religious tradition of exorcising evil spirits because no monks and 'tantric' practitioners, whether Bon and Buddhist, are invited to participate in the ritual ceremony. The ritual involves neither prayers nor making offerings to deities for blessings or favours. The secular origins are evident from the fact that all members of the family, male and female, old and young, unite to share the ‘Gu-thug’ and then ritually drive out all evil spirits without help from holy men.

Given the regional variations that have occurred during the course of thousands of years, the following description of ‘Gu-thug’ ritual is primarily based on the tradition peculiar to the ‘Tsang’ region of Central Tibet, according to Chabpel Tseten Phuntsog on whose accounts this article is based.

The 29th day of the last month may be seen as a ‘spring cleaning’ when the family busy themselves in dusting, cleaning and tidying all the rooms. The layers of dust, soot, grime and all filth accreted during the year are got rid of, as much as possible. As the day wears off, it’s time to start preparations for cooking the ‘Gu-thug’.

Unlike the usual broth of meat in which small chunks of kneaded dough is cooked, care is taken to add special dough balls of varying shape and design, (see Table A) each supposed to symbolise the character trait of the person who draws it in his or her bowl of porridge. Twelve other dough balls of identical shape and size are made in which are inserted objects symbolising different human characteristics (see Table B). These special balls are dry-baked slightly on a fire so that they would hold their shape once they are mixed in the boiling stew of meat and chunks of dough. In addition, it's become common to add nine different ingredients such as cheese, radish, peas, ‘droma’ (wild sweet potato), salt, pepper, meat, dough balls, etc.

Another group of the family members may busy themselves preparing the dough effigy of a human figure to serve as the scapegoat for ritual banishment. The effigy is always placed in a broken piece of pottery or any other worthless utensil or expendable container. All around the effigy are placed all sorts of things such as dregs of tea-leaves, ‘bang ma’ (leftover grain after barley beer is made), bits and pieces of rubbish collected during the day’s cleaning, etc.


Then the members of the family gather and begin the ritual cleaning of oneself by rolling and wiping from head to toe with pieces of kneaded dough held in each hand.

Whilst rolling, rubbing and wiping oneself, one is supposed to face the dough effigy and say aloud things like, "Hey, you Scapegoat! Take away with you all sorts of pain, hurt, physical ailment, mental afflictions; all the four hundred and twenty four kinds of diseases and all of the eighty thousand kinds of impediments induced by  malevolent spirits that strike during the course of ‘360’ days or twelve months of the year and any other such disagreeable things that remain. Take them all with you across the great limitless ocean!” No taking chances here!


Finally, after about sunset, members of the family take their seats according to age and seniority in readiness for the ‘Gu-thug’ broth to find out who draws what kind of character predicting special dough balls. Traditionally, two empty bowls are placed in front of the family elder. Then the lady of the house starts serving the ‘Gu-thug’ with her eyes covered with a white sash to ensure impartiality whilst serving the prophetic dough balls.


Members of the family begin to help themselves to the ‘Gu-thug’ with mixed feelings. The special dough balls are fished out to discover what symbolic dough ball one has drawn. The discovery of positive predictions attract envious comments and congratulations but those who draw the negative predictions could feel very embarrassed as everyone seems to rejoice in having a laugh at one's cost. This is an occasion for great commotion and laughter depending on the person concerned and the draw made. The favourable dough balls drawn are collected in one bowl and the negative balls in the other bowl. At the end, each adds a bit of their left-over ‘Gu-thug’ around the Scapegoat effigy. The bowl containing the negatives draws are also poured around the Scapegoat. The bowl with the positive symbols are taken upstairs or on the roof-top.


Then follows the actual ritual of exorcising the evil spirits from the household. Two younger male members of the family carry a flaming torch fashioned with cloth, straw or bramble, and go from room to room shouting menacingly “Come out! Come out, you evil spirits and demons!” A female member of the family then carry out the broken pottery or container with the Scapegoat mired in a pile of leftover food and refuse. The men with the flaming torch follow her in mock chase of the evil spirits. Others clap their hands in ritual to signify good riddance. Then the door is tightly shut behind.


A significant point to note for those escorting out the banished Scapegoat is not to cast any backward glances towards their home while going out and not to look back towards the castaway Scapegoat while returning lest the evil spirits follow them home. The Scapegoat is placed at the nearest cross-road and the flaming torches are also left there. Often, as people from different families in the neighbourhood gather at the cross-road for the same purpose, they all linger on to sing and perform circle dances as a celebration of the successful banishment of the evil spirits.


In the family home, they have to keep handy a tinder and bunch of dry bramble, a pail of water, ladles and bucketful of ‘tsampa’. As the Scapegoat escorts return and knock on the door to be let in, a voice from inside challenges them, “Our door needs a description before we can let you in.” And in response, the returning escorts sing, “Open up, the wooden-frame above the door is made of yellow gold. Open up, the thresh-hold below is made of turquoise. Open up, the four frames are made of purplish ‘mchong’ stone. Open up, the 'melong' frame is of red sandalwood. Open up, the door bolt is made of white conch shell.”

Finally, those inside hurriedly kindle the bunch of dry bramble and open the door.  As the escorts hurriedly walk in and leap over the crackling bundle of bramble, others from the sides douse them with water and sprinkle ‘tsampa’ over them as ritual cleansing and prevention of any evil spirit that might attempt to sneak in with them.

Then follow a happy period of drinking ‘chaang’and merry making with songs in praise of those who had drawn positive character traits and teasing of those who had drawn negative character traits, who are often parodied according to what kind of person they are supposed to be. The partying and merry making lasts until the wee hours, to mark good riddance to all things negative and to usher in the New Year that is hoped to bring health, happiness and success to all the members of the family.

Shape and design of dough ball	Name and symbolism
Spherical sun	‘Nyima’ – glory and fame
Barbed wire with sharp points	‘Zema Rago’ – wicked, hurts everyone
A crescent	‘Dawa’ – glory and fame
Like a cashew nut with the pointed end bent	‘Ma Nue Tse Kyog’ – incompetent sloth
Like a drop of pearl	‘Lama Konchog’ – honest and altruistic
Like a grain of rice or barley with pointed ends	‘Yar Nyung Mar Nyung’ – malicious, slanderer, instigator
Like a volume of scriptures	‘Dam Choe Puti’ – educated and cultured
Like a cashew nut with the pointed end tapering straight	‘Tog La Tse Nyung’ – greedy and gluttonous
A flat cuboid	‘Den Chung Dru Zhi’ – a life of ease and luxury
Like a 'Damaru' hand drum	‘Damaru’ – unreliable, two-faced person
A fat darkened spherical ball	‘Dug Droe Gormo’ – Gluttonous sloth
A smaller ball joined atop another larger ball	‘Lan Chag Gyabkhur’- illegitimate child-birth or illicit affair

Table B – dough balls of identical size and the symbolism of their contents

Content	Symbolism
Round white marble stone	Kind hearted, noble spirit
Ball of white wool	Forbearing, patient, good-natured
Thread rolled inwards	Introspective, withdrawn, introvert
Thread rolled outwards	Extrovert, creative, open-hearted
Piece of china	Loves food but hates work
Piece of charcoal	Scheming, calculating, vicious
Piece of chilli	Abrasive and hot headed
Piece of paper	Tendency to petty theft and pilfering
A ball of green pea	Cunning, scheming, deceptive
A piece of onion	Bag of farts
A piece of rock salt	Bum laden with salt-bag, lazy, sloth
‘Khul bu’ short soft undercoat of animals	Short tempered, ill-natured

Don’t let China steal Losar

By Tenzin Dorjee

Losar belongs to Tibet. Losar belongs to the Tibetan people. No one can steal it from us.

I live in a foreign land where Tibetan festivals hold no immediate meaning. Struggling onto crowded subways each morning and each night, avoiding the empty gaze of strangers, the ground I walk upon is many seas and skies away from my mountainous home. So why should I celebrate Losar? The real New Year is already past, any way. Well, the answer is simple: No matter where I live, I am Tibetan, and if I don’t celebrate my own tradition, who will?

It has become clear that Chinese authorities have been encouraging Tibetans in certain parts of Tibet to celebrate Losar, even handing out cash for fireworks in some cases. Understandably, this pathetic attempt by China to hijack Losar has angered Tibetans, some of whom may have decided to skip Losar in a knee-jerk reaction.

To celebrate Losar just because China tells us to do so – that’s a mistake. Likewise, to skip Losar just because China tells us to celebrate it – that’s also a mistake. Our tradition should not be relegated to a mere reaction – equal or opposite – to China’s demands. China should have no say in how we practice our tradition. We Tibetans must proactively decide whether, when, where and how to observe Losar.

Chinese authorities will tell us to celebrate Losar next year too, and the year after that. Are we going to skip every Losar just to make a point? If we really want to hit the Chinese government where it hurts most, we should observe Losar in all the ways that distinguish us from them. We should use the occasion to assert our identity – eat Tibetan food, wear Tibetan dress, speak in Tibetan, write Losar cards and door signs in Tibetan, light butter lamps and perform kora. Let khatas hang on the door and prayer flags fly in the wind, let the smell of tsampa and incense fill the air.

Messages from Tibet, via articles and poems, have called on Tibetans to celebrate Losar as an occasion to assert our identity, empower our community, and to distinguish ourselves from the Chinese. Many are using the power of visuals, displaying heart-shaped images with the word “Tibet” inscribed on them on various websites, to play on the fact that Losar falls on Valentine’s Day. I heard that in Lhasa, for example, people have done most of the shopping and are planning to observe Losar at home. After living under virtual martial law for nearly two years, sharing a hot bowl of guthuk and a sweet dish of dresil with friends and family will nourish the soul.

Though mourning is important as a symbolic gesture, it is politically useless beyond a certain point. Excessive mourning, instead of bringing the dead back to life, pulls the living closer to death. In fact, the best way to honor the our martyrs is to advance the Tibetan struggle for freedom – which is what they died for – and the best way to advance the struggle is to engage the grassroots through activism. People will participate in a movement that is vibrant, inclusive, engaging and dynamic. No one is drawn to a movement that is drowning in a pool of tears and self-pity and endless mourning.

Let’s distinguish ourselves from our oppressors, not by our sorrow but by our spirit, not by our mourning but by our activism. If we want to advance our movement, and if we truly want to pay tribute to our martyrs, we must observe Losar by being Tibetan, by taking action, by taking a pledge.

This Losar, take a pledge to do something every week – if possible, every day – that will strengthen Tibetan people and weaken the Chinese empire.

Tendor is the Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet.

Send a Losar Postcard to President Obama

Click on the links below to download printable postcard templates to President Obama who is expected to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama later this month. The meeting is expected to take place right around Losar!

Download Losar because I am Tibetan postcard.

Download I (heart) Tibet postcard.

Download Losar because I (heart) Tibet postcard.

Losar (poem by Bhuchung D. Sonam)

SFT India: We are Tibetan because…

Check out this awesome video from SFT India in response to the “I am Tibetan” video from Amdo (now with English subtitles).

I Am Tibetan

High Peaks Pure Earth has noticed an upsurge in online activity by Tibetan netizens about being Tibetan and Tibetan identity.

This video "I Am Tibetan" was first posted on a Chinese video-hosting website on December 19, 2009 and has been circulating widely. It came later to be posted on YouTube by a Tibetan called Jigdo and is now being disseminated by Tibetans all over the world through social networking sites such as Facebook. To those who don't know Tibetan, the video seemingly looks like a random talking heads video. Once you understand what the people are saying, it is one of the most powerful and creative videos we have seen from Tibet. The camera focuses on random Tibetans, each statement begins with “I am Tibetan” and the next speaker goes on to describe the reason. The video has already inspired Tibetans in Dharamsala to replicate the concept.

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated the YouTube video and added English subtitles:

Losar 2010 Images

Check out some of the Losar images are being circulating on Facebook:

Please change your Facebook profile picture to these images and help spread them far and wide!

“We Have our own Religious Symbols, our own Culture and History!” 

By Woeser

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a blogpost by Woeser that was originally written for Radio Free Asia on January 20, 2010 and posted on her blog on January 25, 2010.

Woeser has written on similar themes in the past, follow this link to read her poem "2005-2008: Nothing Left but a Windblown Flame" translated by Ragged Banner. Woeser also refers to the Dragon Boat Festival in the fourth paragraph of her article below and last year, High Peaks Pure Earth translated a sarcastic and cutting commentary on the enforced celebration of Chinese festivals on minorities by a Tibetan blogger which is worth reading or reading again!

At the beginning of the New Year, the Chinese education department issued a new notice asking the entire country’s various kinds of schools during Spring Festival to organise their students to participate in an event “wishing the beloved motherland a happy and prosperous new year”.  The essence of this “congratulating the motherland” event is absolutely trivial: first, praise the magnificent native soil; second, praise the legendary early ancestors, Yan and Huang Emperors; third, praise the past dynasties’ outstanding figures; fourth, praise the revolutionary martyrs; fifth, praise all exemplary heroes; sixth, praise the millions of common people. A Chinese university professor sarcastically wrote on his blog: “our magnificent native soil has been continuously exposed to destructive exploitation and severe pollution affecting the lives of our descendents.” Furthermore, it has bit by bit been broken up into personally owned territories by the high officials and wealthy people, “which the poor will never get to see”.

Meanwhile, the following criticism will certainly stir up many people’s emotions: “praising the legendary early ancestors, Yan and Huang Emperors, means forcing people to all entertain the exact identical belief. The two emperors, Yan and Huang, are pre-historical legendary characters who are mainly worshipped by Han Chinese as their earliest ancestors… In the 21st century, the education department has come out asking all schools to organise the worshipping of the Yan and the Huang Emperors as the earliest ancestors, hence, forcefully interfering with people’s own beliefs and not respecting other minority nationalities’ own ancestral worship”. This reminded me of when the Uighur professor Ilham Tohti during his talk at the Central University for Nationalities two months ago where he particularly emphasised that “we are not the Yan and Huang Emperors’ descendants, neither are we the descendants of the dragon, we have our own religious symbols, our own culture and history!”

Gangchenpa, who has lived on the snowy highlands for generations, is of course also like this. There has never been any legend passed down since ancient times, nor has there been any page in ancient records and accounts that expresses or acknowledges how we are connected to the utterly irrelevant Yan and Huang Emperors. Opening up our Blue Annals, Red Annals, White Annals and so on, all of them written beautifully and sentimentally, describing the beauty of the snowy highlands, where “the three circles of Ngari on the upper parts are like a pool, the four wings of U-Tsang on the middle parts are like a canal, and the six hills of Khamo on the lower parts are like a field.” There the ape, the embodiment of the Bodhisattva Avolokiteshvara, and the rock demoness, who is the embodiment of the most venerated Tara, gave birth to the black-headed Tibetan people. The earlier Bon religion has in fact a creation myth of more ancient times. Many of the old legends are actually more related to India, especially the origins of our religion.

Recently I have been reading “Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny” by Economic Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen. He expresses that “only if we recognise diversity and variety in our lives, only if we regard ourselves as world citizens, think rationally and do not place people firmly inside a set of rigid boxes, can we perhaps realise peace in the contemporary world.” It is a shame that the more and more fascist China is brandishing the principles of nationalism and patriotism like two sharp swords, and is even abandoning the pretentious opposition to “Han Chauvinism” during the Mao era. It is simply going to assimilate the various “minority nationalities” under its control, and speed up the pace of the assimilation. One year ago, the Chinese Premier promulgated the decree that the traditional Chinese festivals, including the Qingming Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, were to be turned into official national holidays by law, requesting the country’s 56 nationalities to celebrate those three Han festivals on exactly those three days, thus, turning them into “faces of China” just like the Han. Furthermore, today, they simply start with the “babies in the cradle”, who have their own minority cultural background and inheritance. Since childhood, when they are just like a blank piece of paper, they are forcefully tainted by such ritualised events as “wishing the beloved motherland a happy and prosperous new year” thus applying a type of “Chinese quality” that is specific to totalitarianism.

Totalitarianism is the most violent form of terrorism. Totalitarianism does not only seize land, it also seizes the people living on the land, and it even more seizes the people’s memory and spirit. For this reason, following the everything but soft hearted military colonisation, now there exists the highest degree of cultural colonisation. However, identification with a country can by no means be achieved by using a gun against people’s minds. Otherwise, how is it possible that on the vast highlands of the three provinces in the past half-century, almost every 10 or 20 years desperate protests erupted everywhere?  How can Tibetans not know that bullets kill, that prisons exhaust life? Also, the identification with a country can neither be obtained through the superior feeling majority nationality’s charity. Just like one Uighur intellectual said: “If there is a certain degree of the Chinese people’s identification with the Uighurs, then there will be the same degree of Uighurs’ identification with the country.” These lines articulate the deepest agony as a result of discrimination, prejudice and severe impairment.

Beijing, January 20, 2010

Losar: Because we are Tibetan

Tibetans will mark Losar - the Tibetan New Year - on February 14th, 2010. In the Tibetan lunar calendar, this day marks the beginning of the Iron Tiger Year 2137, a time for change, hope, and renewal. On this day, we celebrate our history, our culture, our religion, and our future - because our history is great, our culture beautiful, our religion profound, and – in spite of our present suffering – our future is bright.

Since 2008, following the Tibetan uprising in all three historical provinces of Tibet, we witnessed an escalation in the imprisonment, torture and death of our fellow countrymen and women under Chinese rule. Because of this, last year, Tibetans united around the world and did not celebrate Losar.

This year, many Tibetans are planning to observe Losar for one reason only: because we are Tibetan. We will speak Tibetan language, wear Tibetan dress, and observe Tibetan customs, thus strengthening our identity and our spirit. Through this observance we will find new courage and opportunities to advance our struggle. In observing Losar with family and friends, Tibetans will reach for happiness, which, as much as suffering, is an integral part of a freedom movement.

Through all these years of occupation one thing is clear: the oppressor envies the spirit of the Tibetan people, which cannot be crushed by violence. This year Tibetans worldwide will nourish this spirit with the observance of Losar.

While observing this important cultural tradition, we ask Tibetans and supporters to light butter lamps and candles on their altars and in their windows on February 14th to honor the courage of the Tibetan people in Tibet who continue to resist the Chinese government's illegal occupation of their homeland.

Please take a moment to watch this inspiring video from Amdo, Eastern Tibet, where Tibetans, young and old, declare the myriad ways they are Tibetan:

Also you can watch a similar solidarity campaign video from Tibetans in India:

Included in the video are these statements:
I am Tibetan because I love Tibet.
I am Tibetan because I learn Tibetan.
I am Tibetan because I love my culture.
I am Tibetan because I wear only Tibetan dress.
I am Tibetan because Tibetan blood flows in me.
I am Tibetan because my mother is Tibetan.
I am Tibetan because I sing Tibetan.
I am Tibetan because I am a Tibetan nomad.
I am Tibetan because I love my land.
I am Tibetan because I am a herder on the plateau.
I am Tibetan because I never forget Tibet.
I am Tibetan because I love my Tibetan brothers and sisters.

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“2009 Tibetan Personality of the Year” Preliminary Results Announced

TibetCul.com : "2009 Tibetan Personality of the Year" Preliminary Results

Who is 2009 Tibetan Personality of the Year? Let us discover together, choose together, document together and let their spirit and power warm us, inspire us and guide us.

Another year comes to an end - at the end of 2009, which Tibetans attracted widespread attention? Which Tibetans in Tibet made an outstanding contribution to society? Which Tibetans used their individual powers to expound the outstanding spirit of the Tibetan nationality? Which Tibetans in 2009 who affect our lives are we proud of?

They may already be famous or perhaps are completely unknown; some may be high-spirited and some may be awe-inspiring. In 2009, these people remain in our field of vision. Their life paths mark this era.

Therefore, at the end of December, TibetCul launched a major activity to select the "2009 Tibetan Personality of the Year", a selection which lasted over a month where netizens could make recommendations and nominations, TibetCul allowed netizens to choose anyone they wanted and, following careful investigation and consideration, the preliminary "2009 Tibetan Personality of the Year" list is announced, once again for the consideration of online users and readers of the TibetCul official blog, the consultation period is February 2, 2010 - February 11, 2010 for netizens and readers to express their views on the list. Based on this, TibetCul will release the final list on February 11, 2010.

"2009 Tibetan Personality of the Year" Preliminary List for Individuals:

Penor Rinpoche (Master of Nyingma Tibetan Buddhist teachings, passed away on March 27, 2009)

Ngapo Ngawang Jigme (Tibetan official, Vice-Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, passed away on December 23, 2009 due to illness)

Jampel Gyatso ("Gesar" Research Centre, doctoral tutor)

Jigme Gyaltsen (Tibetan educator, Jigme Gyaltsen Welfare School)

Haxi Tashi Dorjee (environmental volunteer, Vice Secretary General of The Snowland Great Rivers Environmental Protection Association, Qinghai)

Wangchuk Tseten (Founder of TibetCul, Tibetan publisher, poet, scholar)

Pema Tseden (Tibetan director, screenwriter, filming in their mother tongue)

Karma ("King of Dzi", Tibetan businessman, environmentalist)

Gadai Tsering (young Tibetan poet, representative Tibetan figure in poetry circles)

Sonam Tashi (Tibetan singer, 2009 "Girl, I Love You", the most listened to online and downloaded Tibetan song in the country)

"2009 Tibetan Personality of the Year" Preliminary List for Groups:

All the monks of Labrang Monastery

Staff of Qinghai Tibetan TV