Description
(Calendar back image)
To further our efforts in protecting the environment, the TNP 2024 calendar will not be wrapped in plastic film. Individual calendar purchases will be shipped in a recyclable rigid cardboard envelope.
Our 2024 calendar is filled with stunning images of the lives of the Tibetan nuns and also includes:
- Inspirational Quotes
- Tibetan Lunar Calendar
- Ritual Dates
- Phases of the Moon
- Major US and Canadian Holidays
We thank the nuns and friends of the nunneries who provided these beautiful images. Dimensions 6.5″ x 7″.
Proceeds from the sale of the calendar help to provide education, food, shelter, and health care for over 800 Buddhist nuns living in northern India.
How This Unique Charity Calendar is Created
Each summer, the nunneries that we support send a selection of photos for possible inclusion in the next year’s calendar. Once all the photos are gathered together a final selection is made. We try to balance the images, choosing at least one photograph from each nunnery and selecting photographs that are windows into the nuns’ lives.
In this photo from the 2020 calendar, two nuns at Shugsep Nunnery and Institute play the gyaling, a traditional Tibetan woodwind instrument. The photo was taken by a nun at Shugsep and is an illustration of how the annual calendar provides an intimate insight into the daily lives and religious and cultural practices of the nuns.
Each photo is captioned and paired with inspirational quotations from renowned Tibetan Buddhist teachers, such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and others
Tibetan Calendar Holidays
The Tibetan Nuns Project calendar also includes the dates of the Tibetan lunar calendar, as well as special ritual days, Tibetan holidays, and the full and new moons.
The Tibetan calendar is thousands of years old and is different from the Gregorian calendar, which is the international standard used almost everywhere in the world for civil purposes.
While the Gregorian calendar is a purely solar calendar, the Tibetan calendar (Tibetan: ལོ་ཐོ, Wylie: lo-tho) is a lunisolar calendar. This means that the Tibetan year is composed of either 12 or 13 lunar months, each beginning and ending with a new moon. A thirteenth month is added every two or three years so that an average Tibetan year is equal to the solar year.
In the traditional Tibetan calendar, each year is associated with an animal, an element, and a number. Next year, starting at Tibetan New Year or Losar on February 21, 2023, it will be the year of the Water Hare, 2150.
The animals are similar to those in the Chinese zodiac and are in the following order: Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig, Mouse, Ox, and Tiger. The five elements are in this order: Fire, Earth, Iron, Water, and Wood.
