CTA Leadership and Staff Gather at Tsuglagkhang to Make Tsetor Offerings on the First Day of Losar.
By — Shyamal Sinha
In the early morning of the first day of Losar (28 February 2025), the Tibetan New Year and the Year of the Wood Snake, the leadership and staff of the Central Tibetan Administration gathered on the rooftop of the Thekchen Choeling Tsuglagkhang in Dharamshala to participate in the customary offering of Tsetor, a sacrificial cake, to the Dharma Protector Goddess Palden Lhamo.
This offering ceremony, held for over 500 years to propitiate Palden Lhamo by successive Dalai Lamas since the time of the Second Dalai Lama, began with the recital of invocation prayers led by the monks of Namgyal Monastery. The ritual then continued in the main prayer hall of Tsuglagkhang, where the Officiating Sikyong Tharlam Dolma Changra offered a mandala before the portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
According to historical records, it is said that second Dalai Lama Gendun Gyatso initiated the practice of offering Tsetor after he unveiled the sacred site of Lhamo Latso lake and performed a complex Tsetor ritual offering there. This pivotal act not only marked the beginning of a unique connection between the Dalai Lamas and Palden Lhamo but also established a lasting tradition. Since then, monks of Namgyal Monastery, the personal monastery of Dalai Lamas, along with Palden Lhamo devotees, have consistently carried out monthly offerings and the special Tsetor ritual on the morning of the first day of the Tibetan New Year, honouring the legacy of this practice without interruption.
