New year customs on display at Tibetan Museum

The Tibetan Museum in Lhasa is hosting an exhibition informing visitors of customs related to the new year and presenting them with unique and exquisite silk pieces made in the region.

Losar, or Tibetan New Year, is currently being celebrated. Apart from worshipping at temples and watching local performances, another activity on offer is visiting museums. The Tibetan Museum in Lhasa is hosting an exhibition informing visitors of customs related to the new year and presenting them with unique and exquisite silk pieces made in the region.

The Tibetan Museum here is proving to be a one stop destination for those wanting to experience Tibetan new year customs. On display are the typical offerings seen on tables in every household in the Tibetan Autonomous Region including buns, goat's heads, highland barley and dried fruit. Visitors can also try their hand at chess, or a dice guessing game. Guessing riddles written in Tibetan, and taking home red prints of horses are also on the bill. There are also prints of the auspicious Tibetan word expressing blessings.

Silk products have played an important part in Tibetan history for centuries. Silk was brought to the Tibetan plateau along the Silk Road in the Tang dynasty- first used for religious practices and by families in the nobility. The eighty pieces on display have been chosen from 4000 pieces in the museum's collection and are mostly from the period of the Ming and Qing dynasties, some of which testify to the exchange of cultures between the Han people and Tibet.

Cheng Zhihong, staff member of Tibetan Museum, said, "These pieces exemplify a mixture of elegant silk pieces made in the east of China and the functionality and regional culture of Tibet. They were made exclusively for Tibetan people, and sent to Tibet as gifts from the royal court."

So everyone who want to immerse themselves in Tibetan new year culture, come and experience all that's on offer here in Lhasa until Friday.