What is the Tibetan calendar … how is the Tibetan New Year calculated?

Tibetan calendar is a calendar created by Tibetan people, with a history of 1000 years (Sui and Tang Dynasties). Tibetan calendar is a combination of yin and yang, which divides a year into four seasons, with winter, spring, summer and autumn as the order, and the whole year lasts for 354 days. 1February, silver moon is the beginning of a year (the beginning of a year is the same as today's summer calendar), and the period of the moon is one month. The big month and the small month alternate, the big month is 30 and the small month is 29. Leap months are used to adjust the relationship between months and seasons. Setting the leap time is different from the lunar calendar. Influenced by the Han calendar, since the 9th century, the Tibetan calendar has always adopted the chronological method. The difference is that five elements are used instead of ten: A and B are wood, C and D are fire, Wuji is earth, Geng Xin is gold, and Ren is water; Replace the twelve earthly branches with the zodiac, that is, the child is a mouse, the ugly is a cow, and so on. For example, in the year of Jiazi in the lunar calendar, the Tibetan calendar is called the Year of the Wooden Rat. The Tibetan calendar is called "Rao Qiong", which is similar to the "Sixty Flowers and Jiazi" in the mainland, and reflects the origin of the Sino-Tibetan national calendar. In addition, the Tibetan calendar has set 24 solar terms to predict the long-term weather in Tibet, as well as the movements of the five major planets and solar and lunar eclipses. The Tibetan calendar has three elements, including the phenological calendar inherent in Tibetan culture, the time-wheel calendar imported from India and the constitutional calendar imported from the Han nationality.

The Tibetan New Year in 2009 is on February 25th of Gregorian calendar, only 1 month away from the Spring Festival. February 20 10 14 is the Tibetan New Year. There are no specific rules for the coincidence or inconsistency of the dates of the Tibetan New Year and the Spring Festival, but there are only three situations: the same day, the difference of one day or the difference of one month. This year's Tibetan New Year (February 14) falls on the same day as the Lunar New Year and Western Valentine's Day.

According to historical documents and research results at home and abroad, Tibetans had a calendar before the Tubo Dynasty was established. Observing from the phenological calendars of ancient Tibetans, before Tubo unified the plateau, the main popular calendars in various places were lunar calendar and solar calendar. The calculation of the monthly calendar of Shannan Yala shampoo textile old woman is basically a solar calendar with the sun, moon and sky as time units. "Sentence day" (7 days is a week) is very important for Tibetan calendar calculation, and it is also the most important data in Tibetan calendar. In ancient China, the ancients regarded the five planets of Sun, Moon, Jin Mu, Fire, Water and Earth as the seven wonders, which also achieved the Seven Wonders. In the Preface of Biography of the Liang Dynasty by Fan Ning in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there are seven records of "interference" among prostitutes. Among the Tibetan volumes found in Dunhuang, the names of Qi Yao are commonly used by Tibetans so far, and they are: Ri Yao, Yue Yao, Huo Yao, Shui Yao, Mu Yao, Jin Yao and Tu Yao in turn. Remember the moon with seven aliens. The first solar calendar of the "seven-day algorithm" mentioned by the old lady Yala Shampoo Textile is very similar to the "Seven Obsidian Moon" in the scroll of Dunhuang Tibetan scriptures: one uses numbers and the other uses obsidian names. In addition to the lunar calendar, there is also the solar calendar algorithm. As mentioned above, the algorithm of the elderly population is a typical solar calendar, with 365 days a year, but it is still in the natural calendar stage.

During the Tubo period, the knowledge of the deduction algorithm of the zodiac and the five elements was introduced from Han, and developed into a unique combination of yin and yang on the basis of the ancient natural lunar calendar, natural solar calendar and seven-year calendar. "white glass" theory; During this period, although the Tibetan calendar was relatively simple, it formed a unique method to record the day, month and year. Such as the zodiac and the five elements. In 842, the Tang Fanmeng Monument recorded the combination of yin and yang. Later, with the demise of Hongfo, many great mathematicians of this religion were persecuted, and a large number of classics of this religion were destroyed. As a result, the knowledge of Tibetan ancient astronomical calendar preserved in this culture was lost, and it was difficult for modern people to understand the calendar at that time.

However, people can trace back the astronomical calendar knowledge circulated by the people and the extremely precious documents left (such as Dunhuang Tibetan volumes P.T.76, 1, 82, 83, 85 and P.T.55 in 1980s and China), so as to get a glimpse of the Tubo calendar. Tibetan astronomical calendars and people with knowledge in this field all affirm such figures: one is 7 o'clock, and the other is 4 fixed points. This should have been fixed in the Tibetan calendar. It is precisely because of the four sevens when recording the moon that the unique leap day and difference day in the Tibetan calendar are introduced. According to the plateau climate change, the vernal equinox, summer solstice, autumn equinox and winter solstice are divided into four seasons. According to the tradition of this religion, there has been a calculation method for the 60th anniversary of Qiongdan in the Tubo era. All these show that the Tibetan calendar in the Tubo era is relatively complete.

Since 1 1 century, the calendar of Time Wheel Classic [2] was introduced from India. Although there are still many methods for setting calendar years, early years and leap months in Tibet, the calculation of astronomical calendar in Tibet is basically based on the time wheel calendar. Because the Tibetan time-based calendar not only has the basis of the Tibetan ancient calendar, but also absorbs the beneficial contents of the Han area to adjust and improve it, it is not completely equivalent to the Indian time-based calendar.

Tibetan calendar has the characteristics of yin and yang calendar. The cycle of the moon phase is January, and the cycle of the seasonal change is one year. Because the lengths of years and months are not integer proportions, leap months should be set in addition to 12 lunar months (that is, the first lunar month) in each normal year to adjust the seasonal changes; At the same time, it has a unique principle and data system to calculate and predict astronomical phenomena, solar eclipses, the orientation of five stars 28 nights a day, solar eclipses and January eclipses.

Tibetan calendar has seven units: one breath (breathing hectares), six breaths a minute (missing points), 60 minutes a minute (missing points), 60 minutes a day, 30 days a month, and one year 12 months. Among them, the measurement method of "breath" is that the time required for a healthy mature male to breathe and exchange air is about1/21600 of a solar day; A moment is equivalent to 24 minutes.

The calculation method of Tibetan calendar is also very unique. It determines that every lunar month is 29.53058 solar days, but it also stipulates that every lunar month is 30 full cloudy days. So as to match the daily sequence between solar day and lunar day accordingly. There are "leap days and difference days", and the size of the month is solved according to the same day and difference day. The month in which there is no leap day on a poor day or there are more poor days than leap days is a small month, with 29 days per month; The month in which the leap day difference is offset or there is no leap day and no difference day is a big month, with 30 days per month. What are the rules for leap day and base day? The Tibetan scholar's Chronological Calendar summarizes a concise formula, that is, "those who are heavy are big, and those who are short are small." The fourth word of the two sentences represents the ordinal number of the given sun (week) in the astronomical calendar, the third word represents the date in the almanac, and the fourth word represents the value of the end time of two consecutive days. If the solar time series is repeated, one solar time series should be removed; if the solar time series is short, one solar time series should be added, mainly based on the solar time series, so as to maintain the continuity of dates. The most important contents in Tibetan time-wheel calendar are "Five Elements" and "Dog Days". Five Elements or "Five Circumstances": ① Obsidian (referring to the moment when lunar day ended); (2) Date (refers to the cooperation between date and the names of happiness, kindness, victory, determination and full five); (3) Stars (referring to the sun, the moon and the moon, where the moon is at the beginning of the solar day); (4) "meeting" (consisting of fixed days and monthly dormitories); ⑤ "Action" (refers to the points before and after the action). ① ② ③ It is a scientific component in calendar calculation; ④ ⑤ It is related to the art of divination. "Dog days" refer to the solar day (a complete solar day from dawn to dawn the next day), the lunar day (the length of time required for the moon to travel to115 with a white and black arc length) and the Gongri (the length of time required for the sun to pass through a palace130). The above setting of "leap day, difference day", five-inclusive and three-day calculation are the most fundamental basis of Tibetan time-wheel calendar calculation, which is called "the key of calendar calculation". Among them, when calculating five-star operation, three algorithms are often carried out at the same time, which plays the role of mutual review.

There are three kinds of calendars: year, month and day, each with the names of the sun, the moon and the palace. The proportional relationship is as follows:

1 solar year = 12 solar months = 360 solar days.

1 lunar year = 12 lunar month = 360 lunar day.

1 year = 12 months = 360 days.

65 Palace Day = 67 lunar day

64 solar time delay ≈ 63 solar day

The palace year mentioned in the time-ring calendar is the modern sidereal year. In the calendar, there is no distinction between sidereal year and tropic year, only the palace year is used. In practical calculation, the four most important factors are the year of the palace, the solar day, the lunar month and the lunar day, but the solar year and the solar month in the calendar have no practical significance in astronomy.

There are not only seven obsidians in the calendar, but also two imaginary celestial bodies, namely Luobian and Huobao (Luobianwei). Plus the long-tailed comet. They are also called "obsidian" and * * is "10 obsidian". Each cycle of the five stars is the same as or similar to the data measured by modern science. Like other celestial bodies, the time wheel calendar has its own cycle, but it is a "hidden obsidian" with only numbers and no "images". Its movement cycle is 30 lunar months, with a total of 6792.04 solar days, which is quite accurate (today it is 6793.460 days). The orientation of Luobian is expressed by the longitude of the Yellow River, and its circumference is 27 nights. The result is called "falling whip head" in the calendar and "falling whip tail" on the opposite side, which is equivalent to Huang Baisheng and descending node in astronomy. The long-tailed comet in the calendar is the capital of Jiuyao.

The method of forecasting solar eclipse by Tibetan calendar is simple, convenient and accurate. The calculation process is as follows: first divide the cumulative month by the period of Luo, and convert the quotient into days. Then, if the solar eclipse is added for 30 days, and the lunar eclipse is added for 15 days, and then multiplied by the daily running degree of Luo, the head value of Luo is obtained (adding half a week to this value, the tail value of Luo is obtained); Then calculate the sun, moon and yellow meridian, and subtract the closest value of the sun, moon and yellow meridian from the head and tail of Luo. Finally, the difference is used to judge whether it is a solar eclipse or a lunar eclipse. This is very convenient for predicting the occurrence time of solar and lunar eclipses. Because the calendar algorithm stipulates that when the Bai Yue ends, that is, when the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar ends, the time difference between the solar eclipse and the lunar eclipse is just half a week, so the solar eclipse always happens at the end of the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar. When the black month ends, that is, when the cloudy day ends on the last day of the month, the day coincides with the month. A solar eclipse can only happen at this moment. In this way, it is easier to predict whether solar and lunar eclipses will occur, and the time of the eclipse can also be calculated. In short, the Tibetan calendar has a set of systematic methods to calculate the solar eclipse, which can judge the value of the food limit, the time when the eclipse occurs, the delay time of food and the intake direction of food. Food size, etc. These are quite advanced methods in ancient astronomy.

As for Tibet's time wheel calendar, it absorbs the advanced knowledge of the Han calendar, making it more accurate in calculating the tropical year and the length of the moon, arranging the size of the month and setting up leap months. A typical example is to adjust the time calendar according to the principle of "taking the neutral month as a leap month" in the Han Calendar. In the calculation process, the neutral gas in one month appears on the last day of the month, and the next month is regarded as a leap month. Tibetan mathematicians call this "the way of the wise" and adopt it. Of course, in the actual calculation, Zhongqi still uses the data of the time-wheel calendar, so the setting of leap month is still different from that of the Han Chinese lunar calendar.

Tibet's unique astronomical calendar system can not only accurately calculate the positions and movements of the sun, the moon and the five stars, but also predict the weather and earthquakes in Tibet according to phenomena and data such as phenology and stars. For example, the weather forecast includes short-term (one day), medium-term (one season) and long-term (from the current year to the next year). On the basis of the creation of Tibetan people, these are constantly using, absorbing and drawing lessons from astronomical knowledge from India, the mainland and other regions, and gradually developing into the present scale and system.