About Sonam Lochar

About Sonam Lochar

Sonam Lochar, also written Sonam Lhosar, is the New Year of the Tamang people. It falls on the first day of the bright half of the month of Magh, in January or February, and is kept by Tamang families in Sikkim, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Nepal.

Each year is named after one of twelve animals in a repeating cycle, and people greet the new year with prayers for luck and health. Homes are cleaned and decorated, new prayer flags are raised on rooftops and hills, and families visit the gompa, the monastery, to light butter lamps and seek blessings from the lamas.

The kitchen is busy with khapse, fried biscuits, and other festive food, shared with neighbours and guests. People wear their best traditional Tamang clothes and gather for Tamang Selo, the lively folk songs, sung to the beat of the round damphu drum.

Sonam Lochar is a public holiday in Nepal and an important day in Sikkim and the Darjeeling hills. Cultural programmes, dances and fairs fill the towns, and elders bless the young with a scarf and kind words for the year ahead.