Join us as we celebrate Losar at our center. We will use traditional Tibetan ways to greet the New Year.
Each person will light a candle on the altar and we will pray together. Geshe Denma will do the Chemar ritual, a traditional auspicious ceremony using barley flour called tsampa mixed with butter. One person will hold a traditional container of tsampa and butter so each person can take a pinch, offer it lightly three times, touch it to the tongue, and then say the traditional auspicious happiness greeting –
Tashi Delek phun sum tsok,
A ma bak dro ku kham sang,
Ten du de wa to par shog.
Gongni Gongdu Phelwar Shog,”
This means, “Auspicious goodness and abundance to you, may you be healthy and peaceful, may you find eternal peace and happiness, and may your pursuit of peace and happiness flourish day by day.”
“The first offering of money of the year can be made to the altar and the Buddhas. Everyone will wish one another a happy new year and good fortune, health and all good things. Geshela advises us to say only positive things all this day and not to engage in negativity in body, speech or mind and to continue to do prayers. Following the celebration, we will all go to lunch together to start the new year together. We also have new prayer flags in our center that you can obtain to hang traditionally at your home on the first day of Losar.
Geshe Denma Gyaltsen is the resident lama of Ligmincha Texas. He 
arrived in Houston in January 2016 to serve as Ligmincha Texas’s first resident lama.
Geshe Denma was born in northern Nepal. His father brought him to Menri Monastery, India, regarded as the mother Bon monastery in exile, in 1981 to begin his program of study toward the Geshe degree. He received all the Bon teachings, initiations and transmissions in sutra, tantra and dzogchen from His Holiness Lungtok Tenpai Nyima Rinpoche, the 33rd Menri Trizin, and His Eminence Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche.
When he became a senior student, he was asked to teach philosophy to younger students. He successfully completed this degree program in 1996 and was awarded the Geshe certificate, which is considered equivalent to a Ph.D. in Bön Buddhist philosophy and religion.
Geshe Denma was an accomplished teacher and in 1998 was appointed, with the approval of the Tibetan government in exile, first abbot of Zhu Rishing Yungdrung Kundak-Ling Monastery, a Bon Monastery in Sikkim, India by His Holiness. He served two terms in this capacity until 2003. In addition, from the time he graduated until 2008, Geshe Denma also was active in assisting Geshe Nyima Dakpa with the Bon Children’s Home, which houses many children in Dolanji, India, providing them with food, healthcare and free education.