NEW PALPUNG KĀLACAKRA (CYCLE OF TIME) TANTRA “FIRE-HORSE” YEAR DIARY 2026-2027

NEW PALPUNG KĀLACAKRA (CYCLE OF TIME) TANTRA “FIRE-HORSE” YEAR DIARY 2026-2027

Dakini Translations

The warmth of spring, the drum of summer thunder,
Snow melts into spring rain, and marmots awaken from their slumber.
Tibetan New Year, a joyous celebration,
Fills all mountains and valleys with the fragrant aroma of incense.

དཔྱིད་ཀྱི་དྲོད་ལྡང་དབྱར་རྔའི་སྒྲ་སྒྲོག་ཅིང་།། ཁ་བ་ཆར་འགྱུར་འཕྱི་བ་མལ་ལས་ལྡང༌།།
བོད་ལུཊ་གནམ་ལོ་གསར་བཞད་དགའ་སྟོན་གྱི།། རི་ཀླུང་ཀུན་ཏུ་སྤོས་ཀྱིས་དྲི་བཟང་སྤུད།།

Introduction
Recently, I was fortunate and happy to be given this brand new edition of the Palpung Sherab Ling diary by the Sherab Ling monastery.  The diary is pocket-book seized and beautifully designed. As well as really excellent in terms of the information it provides about constellations, rituals and special days in the Karma Kagyu and Palpung calendars . The cover image of the diary is the Kālacakra ten-syllable mantra design.
 
Here is some information at the beginning of the diary about the Kālacakra Tantra and why and how the diary is based on the Kālacakra Tantra tradition:
For the benefit of those who do not read or understand Tibetan I have also translated the information given in Tibetan for the first lunar month (see below). 
Also, there is a lovely description of the term “La (bla)” in Tibetan according to the Kālacakra Tantra as the “quintessence of the elements”, regarding the energy in the subtle body and its connection to lunar cycles, which is a beautiful and fascinating concept and is unique to Vajrayana Buddhist traditions (I have reproduced here).
A description of the Kālacakra concept of “La” and its relation to the subtle aspects of our bodies and its motion through out bodies based on lunar motion.
The origin of the Kālacakra Tantra and its lineage/connection to Karma Kagyu 
Indian Mahasiddha Nāropa, said to be the author of the written Kālacakra Tantra in the 11th Century around 1032.
I wrote and spoke about the origin and written author of the Kālacakra Tantra as  Indian mahasiddha, Nāropa, during my video podcast interview with Kālacakra scholar-translator, Niraj Kumar, here.  Kumar mentions how all the seventeen lineages mentioned by the 13th Century Jonang lineage founder, Kunpang Chenpo, are find their origin in Nāropa.  Here is a short video clip from that podcast on Nāropa as author.
Previously, I also wrote about the Karma Kagyu and Shangpa Kagyu traditions of Kālacakra a few times, in particular in relation to the lineage of the Karmapas. The 3rd Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje was a renowned expert and practitioner of Kālacakra.  Jamgon Kongtrul the First received the entire empowerment of Kālacakra from Karma Kagyu masters, such as Tai Situ Rinpoche and also from his Jonang teacher, Ngawang Chophel, at the Jonang Dzamthang monastery Tibet.  More recently, Jamgon Kongtrul the 3rd and the former Bokar Rinpoche gave Kālacakra empowerments and teachings in Europe and Asia. 
12th Tai Situpa, Pema Donyo Nyinje
 HH 12th Tai Situpa is one of the few living lineage holders of the Kālacakra Tantra lineage as passed down from Nāropa to Ogyenpa to the Third Karmapa onwards.  The 8th Tai Situpa, Chokyi Jungne (1700–1774), was a renowned scholar who commissioned significant artistic works, including paintings of the 27 Tantric Deities, which included Kalachakra and his consort, Vishvamata, reflecting a deep connection to this tantric tradition.  In 1993, H.E. Tai Situpa and the former Bokar Rinpoche consecrated a Kālacakra Stupa at the Paleaku Gardens Peace Sanctuary in Hawaii.
In 2019, when I visited and stayed at Sherab Ling just before the COVID lockdown started, I personally requested (via Lama Tenam) 12th Tai Situpa’s attendant, that Tai Situpa bestow the Kālacakra empowerment for this reason. Lama Tenam told me he would pass the message on to Tai Situpa.
 
For my article on the Karmapas and Kālacakra (2019) see here: The Karmapas and Kālacakra.  For my articles on the Karma Kagyu lineages and Kālacakra see here:

Part I: The Dagpo Kagyu lineage holders of Dro/Jonang Kālacakra

Part II: Kagyu masters of the Jamgon Kongtrul lineage of Dro/Jonang Kālacakra

I also translated (with the assistance, support and transmission of a Jonang Kālacakra teacher) two Je Tāranatha instruction manuals, Meaningful to See and Hundred Blazing Lights, and Bamda Gelek Gyamtso’s Kālacakra text, Chariot that Leads to the Four Kāyas (published by the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in 2019). A second edition of that publication is forthcoming. For more on these texts and other research, see the section of this website on Kālacakra.

Music? Across the Universe by the Beatles, and Breathe by the Prodigy.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Palpung Kalacakra Tantra calendar: First Tibetan Month

The warmth of spring arrives,  the drums of summer thunder,
Snow melts into spring rain, and marmots awaken from their slumber.
Tibetan New Year, a joyous celebration,
Fills mountains and valleys with the fragrance of incense.

དཔྱིད་ཀྱི་དྲོད་ལྡང་དབྱར་རྔའི་སྒྲ་སྒྲོག་ཅིང་།།
ཁ་བ་ཆར་འགྱུར་འཕྱི་བ་མལ་ལས་ལྡང༌།།
བོད་ལུཊ་གནམ་ལོ་གསར་བཞད་དགའ་སྟོན་གྱི།།
རི་ཀླུང་ཀུན་ཏུ་སྤོས་ཀྱིས་དྲི་བཟང་སྤུད།།

This month, coinciding with the root certainty of the Kalachakra tradition, the spring month of Bo, the first month of the Tibetan calendar according to the common system, and the last month of the iron male dragon according to the Khung and Phuk astrological systems, as well as the second month of the Tibetan medical tradition, the first month of the Mongolian system, on the 2nd day, 4/5 of the Tiger, the Kalachakra Tantra tradition begins the second half of the Jar month, marking the peak of the first month of the Tibetan calendar, Jar.

The cold weather begins to soften in Tibet. Interdependence of consciousness. On the 18th, 4/5 of the Horse, the Kalachakra Tantra tradition begins the second half of the second month, known as the “breath” month in the Tibetan calendar. In Tibet, insects breathe and the wind and summer thunder begin. Snow turns to rain. On the 26th, 5/5 of the Tiger, the Kalachakra Tantra tradition enters the house of the Sun in the Naksha constellation.

 In Tibet, insects breathe, wind and summer thunder rise, snow turns to rain. On the 26th, the Tiger’s five-part 5th day, according to the time-wheel tantra system, the sun enters the Pisces house. Expulsion works are accomplished. In Tibet, insects breathe, wind blows, and summer rains fall. On the 26th, at the 5/12 of the tiger, according to the tradition of the Kalachakra Tantra, the sun enters the house of Pisces. Expulsion work is successful. In Tibet, the fish fortress (Nyaghar) collapses, and the full-bodied Pisces strength is at its peak.

From the 26th of this month to the 26th of the next month, the lunar cycle is empty in the northern hemisphere. There is a lunar eclipse on the 15th. The day length is 28 hours, and the night length is 32 hours. From the 4th to the 2nd of the dog, the sun is in the Nakshatra. Five disappear at night and nine rise at dawn. The constellation of Zinfung moves from south to north at dawn. The snake constellation ends and the sun turns back. The Halchi constellation is in the southern part of Tibet. The Yalam constellation is in the southwest. According to the pure and flawless tradition of the Kalachakra Tantra, the 9th day is missing. The 27th day is extra.

In the Phugpa tradition, the 7th day is missing. There are no extra days. The detailed calculation of the planets is 425. The waxing moon is 0, the waning moon is 13, the conflict is 6, the decline is 1.

Tibetan original text

བོད་ཟླ་དང་པོ
དཔྱིད་ཀྱི་དྲོད་ལྡང་དབྱར་རྔའི་སྒྲ་སྒྲོག་ཅིང་།།
ཁ་བ་ཆར་འགྱུར་འཕྱི་བ་མལ་ལས་ལྡང༌།།
བོད་ལུཊ་གནམ་ལོ་གསར་བཞད་དགའ་སྟོན་གྱི།།
རི་ཀླུང་ཀུན་ཏུ་སྤོས་ཀྱིས་དྲི་བཟང་སྤུད།།

ཟླ་འདིར་དུས་འཁོར་རྩ་བའི་ངེས་པ་སྤྱི་ལུགས་ཀྱི་དཔྱིད་ར་དབོ་ཡི་ཟླ་བ་ལ།ཁྱུང་དང་ཕུག་ལུགས་འབྱུང་རྩིས་པའི་དཔྱིད་ཐ་ལྕགས་ཕོ་འབྲུག་ཟླ་ཆེ། གསོ་དཔྱད་པ་སོགས་བོད་སྔ་རབས་པའི་དཔྱིད་འབྲིང་ཟླ་བ་གཉིས་པ་སྟེ ཧོར་ལུགས་ལ་སྦྱོར་བའི་དེང་གི་བོད་ཟླ་དང་པོ ཚེས་༢སྟག་གི་ལྔ་ཆ་༤ནས་དུས་འཁོར་རྒྱུད་ལུགས་ཀྱི་བུམ་ཟླའི་ཕྱོགས་གཉིས་པའི་ཐག་མར་འཇུག་པ་སྟེ། བོད་ཟླ་དང་པོ་བུམ་ཟླའི་སྒང་ཟིན། བོད་དུ་དྲོད་ཀྱིས་གྲང་བའི་ངར་འགོ་ཅུང་མནོན། །རྟེན་འབྲེལ་རྣམ་ཤེས།ཚེས་༡༨རྟའི་ལྔ་ཆ་༤པཪ་རྒྱུད་ལུགས་ཉ་ཟླའི་ཕྱོགས་གཉིས་པ་སྟེ། བོད་ཟླ་གཉིས་པའི་དབུགས་།

བོད་དུ་འབུ་སྲིན་དབུགས་རྒྱུ།རླུང་དང་དབྱར་རྔ་ལྡང་།ཁ་བ་ཆར་དུ་འགྲོ།ཚེས་༢༦སྟག་གི་ལྔ་ཆ་༥ནས་དུས་འཁོར་རྒྱུད་ལུགས་ཀྱི་ཉི་མ་ཉའི་ཁྱིམ་དུ་སླེབ། བསྐྲད་ལས་རིགས་འགྲུབ།

བོད་ན་ཉ་མཁར་འཇིགཉ་ཤེད་རྒྱས་པའི་སྒང་ཁེལ།རང་ཟླའི་ཚེས་༢༦ནས་ཕྱི་ཟླའི་ཚེས་༢༦བར་བུམ་སྟོང་བྱང༌།ཚེས་༡༥ལ་ཟླ་འཛིན་ཡོད།ཉིན་ཚད་ཆུ་ཚོད། ༢༨། མཚན་ཚད་ཆུ་ཚོད

༣༢།ཚེས་༢༠བྱའི་༤ནས་ཚེས་༢༡ཁྱིའི་༢བར་ཉི་མ་ནག།ལྔ་ནུབ་དགུ་ཤར།ཟིན་ཕུང་ལྷོ་ནས་བྱང་དུ་ཐོ་རེངས་རྒྱུ། སྦྲུལ་རྫོགས་ནས་ལྡོགཧལ་ཁྱི་ལྷོ་སྟོད འབྲུག་རྗེ་ཚང་བང་ལ་གནས།ཡས་ལམ་ལྷོ་ནུབ།དུས་འཁོར་རྒྱུད་རྣམ་དག་སྐྱོན་བྲལ་ལུགས་ཀྱི་ཚེས་༩
ཆད།ཚེས་༢༧ལྷགཕུག་ལུགས་ཀྱི་ཚེས་༧ཆད།ལྷག་མེད།གཟའ་ཞིབ་པ།༤༢༥
དར།༠གུད།༡༣གྱོད།༦ཞུད།

 

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