Festivals
Why we celebrate Saka Dawa
Memory, Pilgrimage, and the Meaning of Saka Dawa The Lamp Before Sunrise I remember the smell first. Butter. Warm, slightly sweet, mixed with juniper smoke
Memory, Pilgrimage, and the Meaning of Saka Dawa The Lamp Before Sunrise I remember the smell first. Butter. Warm, slightly sweet, mixed with juniper smoke
Memory, Pilgrimage, and the Meaning of Saka Dawa The Lamp Before Sunrise I remember the smell first. Butter. Warm, slightly sweet, mixed with juniper smoke drifting up from the offering bowl. My grandmother would be awake before any of us, kneeling in front of the small altar in our living room, lighting the butter lamps one by one. Her lips moved without sound. She did not need to read the words. She had been saying them for sixty years. It was
The story of a 1,400-year-old language, why it is in danger, and the children carrying it into the future. From Thonmi Sambhota’s alphabet to a Tibetan teenager typing Losar greetings on a smartphone.
A story of wind, color, and prayers carried across the world — the meaning behind the five-colored cloths that have fluttered above Tibetan rooftops and mountain passes for more than a thousand years.