In this brief opinion article, I share the puzzlement and concern at news that the Central Tibetan Administration in exile/media are requesting people living in Tibetan communities in exile (and one presumes in Tibet) not to celebrate Tibetan Losar/New Year 2025 (28th February 2025). This is not the first time such governmental/religious pressure has been placed on people in this way. However, such a message is neither Buddhist no necessary.
Firstly, as the Shakyamuni Buddha himself taught in the first noble truth, samsaric suffering is endless and millions of sentient beings are and have been dying in natural disasters, wars, old age, sickness and being murdered by humans to eat for thousands of years and more.
So why have the CTA exile government called for people not to celebrate Losar with reasons such as the passing of the 14th Dalai Lama’s 97 year old elderly brother, and Tibetans tragically dying in the earthquake in Tibet? Where is the Buddhist equanimity and realisation of samsara and impermanence in that? Do only the lives of relatives of the 14th Dalai Lama and Tibetans matter? What about the recently deceased father of 17th Karmapa, and/or the Chinese and animals whose lives were tragically taken in the earthquake too?
Samsara is endless and Buddhist equanimity
If genuine wisdom and equanimity was present there should have been a ban on Tibetan Losar celebrations for centuries not just this year, right? In Buddhism, practitioners are supposed to generate a mind that sees all sentient beings as worthy of love, compassion, joy and so on. Not to have bias towards certain groups based on their biological sex, gender, race, nationality, religion and bodily form.
For example why don’t they announce a year of grieving for the millions of animals tortured and slaughtered each year unnecessarily to eat? Which the Buddha himself taught many times was a) a wrong livelihood, b) ethically wrong and unnecessary, c) contrary to the vow against deliberate killing for wrong reasons, d) leads to re-birth in lower realms, e) breaches the Vinaya code for monastics. Or do animals and the destruction of the planet and natural resources not count when it comes to the selfish concerns of human’s and their personal diet? For more on what the Buddha taught about eating animals, see here.
Why don’t these influential political and religious people just allow sentient beings to celebrate and welcome in a new year as they wish and at least allow them some joy and festivity for a few days in the year, a time when they can also engage in spiritual practice and aspirations, even if it’s only for Losar?
“Mourning”/grieving not consistent with Buddhist teachings on the bardo/intermediate state
Also, it is taught in the Bardo Thodrol, the important Tibetan text on how to practice when dying, or someone else has died, that one should not ‘mourn’ or ‘grieve’ too much anyway when someone who is dear to us passes away, unless they are a great Buddhist master, whose loss to humanity is huge. It is taught that grieving does not help the deceased person’s mind in the bardo/intermediate state. In fact, it may cause the deceased person’s mind to become disturbed or even want to stay in that realm and become like a ghost.
What benefit is there to people not celebrating or commemorating the New Year anyway, does it help those who have passed away or who are in difficult and challenging situations? No, not at all. In fact, it may even give people the wrong (and false) impression that they have done something meaningful to help others, when in reality, it has helped no-one other than at the very least, get people to reflect on the suffering of sentient beings for a few days (but only a select group of sentient beings it seems).
Government/religious control of when and whom people can celebrate and commemorate
Also, no other genuinely secular, and democratic government in the world would declare Christmas, or New Year’s Eve ‘cancelled’ for such bizarre and biased reasons. On a more general note, it is a ‘slippery slope’ indeed when religious leaders use their power and influence to dictate or pressure people to not celebrate or commemorate certain people or events. Especially if they also use that power to influence people to be biased in their choices of commemoration/celebration too. For example, encouraging everyone to commemorate Je Tsongkhapa instead of Marpa the Translator or Je Atisha or Milarepa? Or the passing of one of the 14th Dalai Lama’s relatives (not a great Buddhist master) and not that of the 17th Karmapa’s father?
In addition to the hypocritical and inconsistent ‘lecturing’ others about suitable commemorations/grieving, how many of these same political and religious public figures (and their families) spend their long Winter (and Summer) holidays travelling and having a pleasurable (and very expensive) time in Europe and North America, while the majority of Tibetan exiles remain in India or Nepal?” Is this not just a classic case of just manipulating masses of people to “do as I say, not as I do”?
Thank you for calling out this absurd hypocrisy!
Welcome! Good to see some understand and appreciate this “exposure” of something that is obvious to people with wisdom/discernment.