Losar is the Tibetan word for "new year".
lo holds the semantic field "year, age"; sar holds the semantic field "new, fresh".
Losar is an important holiday in Tibet, Bhutan and for certain ethnic groups in Nepal.
Before the Tibetan New Year, "Nam-Ghang" is celebrated on the eve of the last night of the year.
The celebration of Losar predates Buddhism in Tibet and can be traced back to the pre-Buddhist Bön period.
In this early Bön tradition, every winter a spiritual ceremony was held, in which people offered large quantities of incense to appease the local spirits, deities and 'protectors'.
This religious festival later evolved into an annual Buddhist festival.
