Festival, Ritual and Special Practice Days at Tara Mandala
February 22 (Wednesday) - Losar (Tibetan New Year)
Special Event to be held at Tara Mandala for locals
Losar is celebrated in homes and with friends, eating special food and drinking jugs of barley chang. On the first day pilgrims go to pay homage to the most sacred statue of Sakya Muni in Jokhang temple and burning incense all around Jokhang as well as at all Tibetan homes. Every one dresses in his/her finest closthes to do holy circuit around monasteries and temples.
March 3 (Saturday) - Guru Rinpoche Day
March 8 (Thursday) – Chotrul Düchen (The Display of Miracles) and 1st Full Moon*
Special Event to be held at Tara Mandala
The leaders of India’s six main philosophical schools challenged the Buddha to a contest of miraculous powers. The Buddha displayed a different miracle each day for 15 days and, utterly defeating his opponents, inspired many individuals to follow the Dharma.
(Also International Women’s Day)
March 11 (Sunday) – North American Daylight Savings Time begins
March 17 (Saturday) – Dakini Day
March 20 (Tuesday) – Spring Equinox
Special Event to be held at Tara Mandala
April 2 (Monday) – Guru Rinpoche Day
April 6 (Friday) – Full Moon
April 11 (Wednesday) – Anniversary of Do Khyentse (1800 – 1866)
April 16 (Monday) – Dakini Day
April 28 (Saturday) – Machig Labdron’s Birthday
May 1 (Tuesday) – Guru Rinpoche Day
May 6 (Sunday) – Full Moon
May 15 (Tuesday) – Dakini Day
May 20 (Sunday) – Solar Eclipse
(effects of positive and negative actions multiplied by 10,000)
May 28 (Monday) – The Birth of the Buddha (also in USA – Memorial Day)
May 31 (Thursday) – Guru Rinpoche Day
June 4 (Monday) – Saga Dawa Düchen (Buddha’s Enlightenment and Parinirvana) and Partial Lunar Eclipse *
Special Event to be held at Tara Mandala
On his enlightenment at the age of thirty-five in Bodhgaya, the Buddha proclaimed “Profound peace, natural simplicity, uncompounded luminosity, I have found a nectar-like dharma.”
This day also marks the anniversary of the Buddha’s parinirvana. When lay dying in a forest grove in Kushinagara, surrounded by five hundred of his disciples, he said to them with his last breath, “It is in the nature of all things that take form to dissolve again. Strive with your whole being to attain perfection.”
(On Lunar Eclipse Days the effects of positive and negative actions are multiplied by 1,000)
June 14 (Thursday) – Dakini Day
June 19 (Tuesday) – Anniversary of Nyala Pema Duddul (1816 – 1872)
June 20 (Wednesday) – Summer Solstice
Special Event to be held at Tara Mandala
June 26 (Tuesday) – Birthday of the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje
June 29 (Friday) – Guru Rinpoche Day (and birthday of Dilgo Khyentse Yangsi
Rinpoche)
July 3 (Tuesday) – Full Moon
July 6 (Friday) – Birthday of HH the 14th Dalai Lama
July 13 (Friday) – Dakini Day
July 23 (Monday) – Chökhor Düchen (The First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma)*
Special Event to be held at Tara Mandala
For seven weeks after his enlightenment, Buddha did not teach. Finally, encouraged by Indra and Brahma, he turned the Wheel of Dharma for the first time, at Sarnath, teaching the Four Noble Truths.
July 28 (Saturday) – Birth of Guru Rinpoche
At sunrise, Guru Rinpoche is miraculously boron amidst dazzling radiance in a lotus bed on Lake Danakosha. Turning the Wheel of Dharma for the dakinis, he is known as Guru Tsokye Dorje.
August 12 (Sunday) – Dakini Day
August 26 (Sunday) – Guru Rinpoche Day
August 31 (Friday) – Full Moon
September 10 (Monday) – Dakini Day
September 18 (Tuesday) – Tara Mandala Founders Day
Special Event to be held at Tara Mandala
September 22 (Saturday) – Fall Equinox
Special Event to be held at Tara Mandala
September 25 (Tuesday) – Guru Rinpoche Day
September 30 (Sunday) – Full Moon
October 3 (Wednesday) – 65th Birthday of Lama Tsultrim Allione
October 4 (Thursday) – Anniversary of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910 – 1991)
October 10 (Wednesday) – Dakini Day
October 18 (Thursday) – Anniversay of Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa (1729 – 1798)
October 23 (Tuesday) – Anniversary of the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa (1924 – 1981)
October 24 (Wednesday) – Guru Rinpoche Day
October 29 (Monday) – Full Moon
November 4 (Sunday) – North American Daylight Savings Time Ends
November 6th (Tuesday) – Lha Bab Düchen *
Special Event to be held at Tara Mandala
Buddha Shakyamuni’s descent from heaven. Buddha’s mother was reborn in Indra’s heaven. To repay her kindness and to liberate her, and also to benefit the gods, Buddha spent three months teaching in the realm of the gods.
November 9 (Friday) – Dakini Day
November 13 (Tuesday) – Total Solar Eclipse
(effects of positive and negative actions multiplied by 10,000)
November 23 (Friday) – Guru Rinpoche Day
November 28 (Wednesday) – Full Moon and Penumbral Lunar Eclipse
(On Lunar Eclipse Days the effects of positive and negative actions are multiplied by 1,000)
December 8 (Saturday) – Dakini Day and Birthday of Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and
Anniversary of Je Tsongkhapa (1357 – 1419)
December 21 (Friday) – Winter Solstice
Special Event to be held at Tara Mandala
December 22 (Saturday) – Guru Rinpoche Day
December 28 (Friday) – Full Moon
January 7 (Monday) – Dakini Day
January 21 (Monday) – Guru Rinpoche Day
January 26 (Saturday) – Full Moon
February 4 (Monday) – Anniversary of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (1920 – 1996)
February 5 (Tuesday) – Dakini Day
February 10 (Sunday) – Losar (Tibetan New Year)
Special Event to be held at Tara Mandala
* One of the Four Main Buddhist Festival Days (Düchen): On these days the effects of positive or negative actions are multiplied 10 million times.
