Preparations for the festive event are manifested by special offerings to family shrine deities, painted doors with religious symbols, the making of Kabtse (Tibetan cookies) and other painstaking jobs done to prepare for the event.

People eat Guthuk (barley crumb food with filling) on New Year's Eve with their families. Eating Guthuk is fun since the barley crumbs are stuffed with different fillings to try to fool someone in the family. The Festival of Banishing Evil Sprits is observed after dinner.  It is a sign  that the New Year is approaching when one sees lit torches, hear crackers cracking and see people running and yelling to get rid of evil spirits from their houses.

Before dawn on New Year's Day, housewives get their first buckets of water for their homes and prepare breakfast. After breakfast, people dress up to go to monasteries and offer their prayers. They visit their neighborhoods and exchange  Tashi Delek blessings during the first two days. On the third day, old prayer flags are replaced with new ones. Other folk activities consist of organizing cultural dances and football matches, ‘Tug O War’ may be held in some areas to celebrate the events. In the monastery, monks on the first day go to their respective teachers and high-incarnated lamas with scarves in their hand to get blessing for the coming New Year.  Special food is served from the community kitchen for everyone.  In the evening, films are shown on the white washed wall of a building where everyone comes with mattresses to sit on and enjoy the film.   Losar is a very important celebration.

After the Tibetan New Year celebration, the Monlam Prayer Ceremony was held at Gadan Monastery.

The Monlam Prayer Festival was established by Je Tsongkhapa (1357-1419), the founder of the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism. It is the commemoration of the Buddha’s displaying paranormal feats and thus defeating the six ‘heretics’ who had challenged him.

On the evening of the full moon day, monks display the butter sculptures that they have created and everyone comes forward to receive a blessing from it. The cake burning ritual (tor kya) is done on the sixteenth afternoon,.  A huge fire is lit  to throw the ritual cake and people pray for a peaceful year and the removal of all the obstacles and evil spirits from one paths. On the morning of the seventeenth day, the sacred idol of Maitreya Buddha is carried in a processio circumambulating Gaden monastery with people throwing khatas (Tibetan scarves). People seek the statute’s blessing, looking forward to the age of Maitreya when everyone will be mindful of religion, sincere, honest and free from sickness and distress.

The Monlam Prayer Festival concludes on the 15th day of Losar.

The Sacred Arts Tour to United States and Canada was a great success. Drepung Gomang Monastery and its administrative staff sincerely thank our US National Coordinator Jennifer Harris and our Canadian Coordinator Laurel Antti for devoting themselves and working hard to guarantee that the Sacred Art Tour is a success in their respective countries. We especially thank Jennifer Harris for her continuous support towards the monastery and for supporting and hosting every tour group. We understand that it is not an easy task, but really respect and value whatever you are doing. We also thank Laurel Antti for coordinating the first ever Gomang tour to Canada. We surely will never forget all the sacrifice, time, hard work that you both put into this tour.
 
Also we extend our great thanks to all the local coordinators, wonderful hosts, volunteers, friends and sponsors who assisted the group. Your help, assistance and great sacrifice that you put towards the success of tour is never wasted and it really benefited the monks of this monastery.
 
IN USA-Dave Raymer, Mary J. Pattison, Nancy Beres, Curtis Jones and John Murray, Suzanne Darmory Dunleavy, Jeff Cobb, Carol Stewart (our next US National coordinator), Ken Klein, Michael Spencer, Tom Westheimer, Cynthia Schroer, Diane Richards, Jilly Warner, Lama Chuck, Jack Finley, Kaity Power, Mai Nguyen, Kayce, Stacy Johnson, Shiela Hogan, Carol Rachelson, Susan Griffith. Greg Schultz and family, Gen. K. Monlam, Ama Sandra Easner.

IN CANADA-Claire Brewster/Luisa Durante, Chris Fossey, Andrew Little, Allan Loft, Karen Kumar, Shelly Porteous, Wilf Ruland, Nick Scime, Shannon McLaughlin, Steve Begley, Babe Santucci, Tais Lintz, Ottawa Friends of Tibet, Deborah Loosemore, Tina Heimonen, Gerry Kopelow, Diana Zhang, Dennis Evans, Sharon Nattras, Rainnie Evans, Kathie Puffer/Lori Mitchell, Elaine Seto/Alan Scofield, Naomi Steinberg, Lisa and Matt Kelly, Lisa Li, Krista Kalbfleish, Robyn Sanford. (Many others who names are not here)
 
Our thanks and gratitude also to Andreas Kurz who started the first ever tour of the monastery and established Friends of Drepung Gomang in USA. And also to Office of Tibet for their kind help. We thank also all individuals, art museums, health organizations, educational institutions, and dharma centers who have donated to the monastery on the occasion of the Sacred Art Tour coming to their area.
 
We also thank Tenzin Dolma (Kristel Ouwehand) for her great work in the monastery for so many years and also for selflessly working so hard for the success of the Sacred Arts Tour. And also our thanks to the monks of the group for their great hard work they have done for the monastery. It really is team work,  and credit for the success of the Sacred Arts Tour goes to you all, wonderful people and monks.
 
We all here will pray for the well being of you all and will never forget your gratefulness. ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU SO MUCH.
 
With due respect and prayers,
Sincerely,
Geshe Lobsang Sangye, (Chief Administrator)
Geshe Lobsang Kunga, (Director in charge of Tour)
Migmar Tsering (Secretary)
And all the Administrative Staff of Drepung Gomang Monastery.

The Sacred Art Tour is preparing to return home to the monastery after completing its very successful North American Tour. The tour began in the USA in Chicago, Illinois in June 2005 and will end during the first week in May in Canada, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The group of hardy travelers went to Canada in January and have visited many cities and provinces in this country. The National Canadian Tour Coordinator, Laurel Antti, connected with them in Burlington. Then they they began the Canadian leg of their tour in Hamilton where they stayed for a few days with the family of Tenzin Dolma (Kristel Owehand), one of the artists in the group. Since then they have visted Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Hamilton/Burlington (again), Ottawa, Quebec City, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, Regina, Lethbridge, Calgary, and Vancouver.

They have consistently been met with great kindness, warmth, and generosity. The monastery is delighted that they have made so many new friends in such a great country. We wish good health and great happiness to the people of both the United States and Canada.

Go to the Sacred Art Tour Scrapbook Pages to view an account and pictures of their tour.

With great thanks to Carol Stewart (DGI, Louisville) for accepting our request to be the US Coordinator for our upcoming tour, the monastery is planning to send a new group of monks to the  United States to fund raise for the monastery’s various projects.

The past tour has been of really great benefit for the welfare of the monks; moreover, it is an eye opener to many friends who are not aware of the Tibetan religion and culture. We will be soon clicking a group picture of the new tour group to put in this site.

14th TIBETAN ASSEMBLY ELECTION.
On 18th March, 2006, all the exiled Tibetans across the world voted to elect their representative to the 14th Assembly of the Tibetan People’s Deputies and also to case their votes for the preliminary election of the Kalon Tripa’s post. Here in Drepung, the voters formed a long line before the main Drepung Prayer Hall (Drepung Tsok chen) and waited for their turn to cast their vote. The result of the elected candidate will declared on 28th April 2006 as per the information provided by Election Commission (EC) of the Central Tibetan Administration.

GROWING POPULATION.
In the year 2005, 181 new monks joined us here. They arrived from Tibet, India, nepal, Russia, and Mongolia. Presently, it has been quite hot and it is a bit hard for the newcomers from Tibet who are not accustomed to the hot climate. , but we are sure that they will slowly get used to it.

The monastery will be able to provide good care and education to each student here because of the kind assistance of of friends, sponsors, and well-wishers. We thank everyone for their kind generosity.

TIME OF SELF-STUDY.
Here in the monastery, it is a time for self-study. No debates are conducted during this time of the year, but the monks still study. The Discipline Master and his assistant will regulary inspect the houses and dormitories to check whether or not the monks are studying.
 

In this issue Drepung Gomang wishes to acknowledge and thank all everyone who has contributed to the success of the Sacred Art Tour in Canada.  During its journey throughout this great country, many kind persons have donated their time, their energy, and their money to the tour group.  The public has been generous in purchasing merchandise and in giving donations to the Food Foundation and the Health Fund.  We thank all individuals, art museums, health organizations, educational institutions, and dharma centers who have donated to the monastery on the occasion of the Sacred Art Tour coming to their area.

Our greatest thanks goes to the Canadian National Tour Coordinator, Laurel Antti, who has devoted herself to guaranteeing that the Canadian leg of the Sacred Art Tour is a success.  We will list here the locations where the monks have been in Canada and will name their coordinators.  We wish to thank many other persons whom we do not have the room to name here.  You know who you are and our thanks go out to you as well.  The listing (left to right) is in order of the itinerary:
 

	Other Donors
Food Foundation	Health Fund	Sponsorship Fund
Mary Frey-Gilbert	Mary Elizabeth Kalb	Dunny Barney
Janet Glover		Kathleen Bernadette
Milton Greek		Janet Cohn
Tenzin Sherab		Lauren Cross
Elizabeth Steele		Lois Greenberg
		Michael Hall
		Jason Holland
		Mary Lencses
		Scott & Tracy Marx
		Mary Pattison
		Kathryn Trudeau
		Terry Vanderheyden

All donors will continue to be remembered in the prayers of the monks.