Losar Family Day 2023

Leap into the Year of the Water Hare with your family and friends! Celebrate Losar, the Tibetan New Year, with an afternoon of art. Learn about traditional Losar celebrations and this year’s zodiac animal, the kind and sensitive Water Hare. Then explore the galleries, watch a traditional torma butter sculpture demonstration, and let your creativity go wild!

Create

• Create a colorful design inspired by Himalayan butter sculptures
• Mark the Year of the Water Hare by watercolor painting this year’s zodiac animal
• Shed the obstacles and regrets from the past year in an activity to inspire cleansing and renewal
• Design prayer flags with your personal intentions and prayers for the New Year

Join

• Join in the music and songs of Losar with the celebrated Tibetan folk and freedom singer Techung! His children’s album Semshae: Heart Songs brings the traditional sounds of Tibet to young listeners around the world. Find out why his works have led him to be honored for his artistry by New York State’s Council for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Watch

• Watch an expert torma maker create beautiful butter sculptures. Made from flour and butter, these intricate, colorful ritual offerings are displayed in Tibetan Buddhist shrines 15 days after Losar during Chunga Choepa, the Butter Lamp Festival.

Learn

• Children from the YindaYin Coaching Center in Jackson Heights, Queens will share the significance of the holiday of Losar with a performance in the Rubin theater, including traditional dance, song, instrumental music, recitation, and a student art showcase.

About the musician

Techung is a Tibetan folk and freedom singer. Techungs’s career demonstrates his ability to address both secular and sacred aspects of Tibetan culture. Techung’s music captures the traditional soundscapes of Tibet and the deep longings of a people living for decades in exile. With the goal of reaching Tibetan children, Techung released his first Tibetan children’s music album Semshae – Heart Songs, in 2010. At the 2018 Tibet House benefit concert at Carnegie Hall, Techung collaborated with composer Philip Glass who described him as, “a man of such talent representing the culture of this exiled and oppressed community.”

Mandala Lab and Family and School Programs are made possible with lead support from the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Barbara Bowman, Fred Eychaner, Noah P. Dorsky, the Estate of Lisina M. Hoch, The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, Rasika and Girish Reddy, Shelley and Donald Rubin, and Tiger Baron Foundation.

Major support is provided by Bob and Lois Baylis, Sara and Joseph Bedrick, Anne and Albert Chao, Con Edison, Daphne Hoch Cunningham and John Cunningham, Anne E. Delaney, DeWitt Stern, Karen Dorsky, Jack Lampl, Max Meehan, Dan Gimbel of NEPC, LLC, The Prospect Hill Foundation, Sarah and Craig Richardson, Basha Frost Rubin and Scott Grinsell, the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation, Namita and Arun Saraf, Linda Schejola, Eric and Alexandra Schoenberg, Eileen Caulfield Schwab, Tsherin Sherpa, Jesse Smith and Annice Kenan, Taipei Cultural Center in New York, and New York Life Insurance Company*, and New York Life.

Public funds are provided by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

We additionally thank the generosity of 223 sponsors and donors who contributed to our 2020 gala, Inside the Mandala: A Virtual Gala.