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Lomba is a popular local New Year celebration observed in the villages of Paro and Haa districts. Lomba is a celebration for the beginning of a New Year, which takes place from the 29th day of the 10th month of the lunar calendar. It is one of the most special annual occasions for the Parops and Haaps, residents of the valleys. The name “Lomba” expresses carrying good luck from one year to another. Ba literally means receiving wealth in one’s hand or to carry something forward, leaving the past behind. Lomba is celebrated by Haaps and Parops as a New Year festival from the 29th day of the 10th month of the lunar calendar. In Haa, Lomba often lasts until the 15th day of the 11th month, while Parops have a shorter celebration until the 2nd day of the 11th month.
Although Lomba has been part of the culture of the two valleys for many generations, making it difficult to trace the origin. No specific written text has been found for early observances so far. According to folk understandings, some believe that Lomba began with the arrival of Phajo Drugom Zhigpo in the 13th century, while some believe that it began much earlier when men started working for food.
According to Dasho Sangay Dorji (2011), Lomba observed in Paro and Haa districts may be the legacy of the Lhapas, but in some religious texts, the Lomba celebration dates to an influence from Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyel (1594-1651) who consolidated the Bhutanese region into a state in 1649. Himself hailing from Tibet to the north, he first introduced Bhutanese to the celebration of Nyi-lo winter solstice. The day marked the end of the year and welcomed another year of prosperity with bountiful harvest. With adequate food reserve stored on the rooftop, Haaps and Parops began to recognize the day as Lomba and ushered in the beginning of the dry season of winter. Temples and monasteries in the country would have also received the annual provisions of butter, meat, rice and wheat grains on Lomba. Since then, Lomba is celebrated every year, which would make it the earliest New Year festival celebrated in any district of Bhutan.
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Each community in the valleys of Haa and Paro has a different way of celebrating and observing Lomba. Celebration of Lomba signifies that the good year ending is now carried over to another year of prosperity with the gift of a bountiful harvest. This is an occasion when all members of the family, wherever they may live and work, gather for the grand feast to invoke blessings from their Klu Dharma protecting deities or Yul-lha local deities. They will pray together for the peace and prosperity for their own family, for yet the year ahead, and for the country. It is also the time to clean, prepare, and then cast away a number of Lud, which is believed to sweep way one’s diseases, bad luck and sufferings. People of the Haa valleys prepare Hoen-tey and distribute to all their near and dear ones and other well-wishers as a token of love and gratitude.
Feasting Hoen-tey
“Lom” means dried turnip leaves and “ba” means to take or carry something onward in hand. This relates to the Hoen-tey buckwheat dumplings prepared for Lomba that is distributed to the all neighbors and relatives, which simply welcomes the New Year with prosperity and good luck.
Hoen-tey is a celebratory dish, prepared with a blend of dried turnip leaves, fermented cheese, butter, and walnut all wrapped in sweet buckwheat flour to be steamed or fried. Thousands of Hoen-tey is prepared on Lomba to share between neighbors, relatives and for those who don’t make it home. On Lomba sharing Hoen-tay is an expression of one’s love, affection, and loyalty.
As an important part of an event brining good fortune, people take care to prepare Hoen-tey with grace and perfection to contribute to the celebration. Therefore, if there is death or sickness in a house, the family will not prepare Hoen-tey. Coming together to make Hoen-tey is fundamentally a social gathering that brings families together. Hoen-tey is offered to the nobility as a gesture of respect and goodwill. Hoen-tey is also offered to those children singing Lolay Lolay during Lomba celebration.
Family Ritual
Lomba is not only about welcoming the New Year, it is also considered the annual family ritual. All family members are expected to gather for the ritual held during Lomba, making it a symbolic social gathering for the whole community. The ritual is performed for health, wellbeing, and success for every family member.
Towards the evening, between 5 and 7pm, on Lomba or on the 29th day of the tenth month of the lunar month, families make Lud, a human-like effigy of wheat flour representing the people of the house. Some families make one single Lud while others make two, one male and one female. This little representative is then adorned with all kinds of basic human belongings like household items and clothing that a real human being uses. The Lud are dressed in small pieces of clothes, with dark beans as its eyes, and surrounded by a number of twigs from variety of trees found in the local area. Some families also mount their Lud on a horse Lud. These are placed in a plate or a used Bang-chung which is to be discarded along with the Lud. A variety of food items, including Hoen-tey, Druna-gu, the nine varieties of cereals, fruits and meat are also placed in alongside the Lud.
Lud chey-ni is when small pieces of dough are swept down the entire body of each member of the family from head to toe, then each person spits on their piece of dough. This symbolizes the sweeping away of evil influence and evil spirit. It is believed that these actions trap the spirits in the dough. Set onto the plate, these small pieces of dough also form a part of the retinue of the Lud. In the absence of a family member, the dough is instead swept over their clothes.
Then comes the time to chase the Lud. In a grand evening ceremony, one person from the family disposes of the Lud amidst sharp whistling and loud noises. The individual takes the plate or Bang-chung that contains the Lud, with its face oriented outwards and carries it out of the house. A second person follows behind with a broom, sweeping the path behind the Lud, indicating that anything that might have been left behind is to be taken away with it. The Lud is then placed in the middle of a crossroad or nearby stream convergence. People strongly believe that this ritual will ward off evil spirits and ill fate for the coming year and will instead bring good luck and prosperity to the family.
Thanking and Invoking Blessings from Klu, Yul Lha, and local deities
The Lomba, besides being a time of celebrations, is also a time to give thanks and make offerings to local deities. The people of Haa and Paro valleys propitiate their local deities for their protection and support as well as for timely rain and prevention of diseases. They also please the Lu underground beings for their grant of peace, prosperity, and another fruitful year. Homemade food is first offered to these powerful beings along with prayers.
During Lomba, the invocation of the Lu takes place. Lu are underworld beings sometimes believed to take serpent form. It is believed that they bring blessings of wealth and good health, and are therefore worshipped in Bhutan. People believe that these serpent deity figures goes into slumber for the entire tenth month and wake up on the morning of the first day of the eleventh lunar month.
On the early morning of the first day of the eleventh month of the lunar calendar, housewives each offer a Bang-chung of steamed rice to the Lu-bum; a special shaped stone. Meat and alcohol are not used in offerings to a Lu. The rice of the Bang-chung is brought back to their house and distributed to everybody, as a blessing and as a gift from the Lu.
Invocation of the Yul-lha, village deity, takes places on the second day of the eleventh month of the lunar calendar. On this day of Lomba, offerings are directed to the Dharma-protecting deities and deities of the surrounding area. This day brings more feasts consisting of rice, meat, and a variety of other food items. First the deities are offered the food from the attic of the house, and then to the Dharma deities in the temple. Older women of the households and the children worship the Yul-lha by making offerings of meat, rice, tea, and wine on the rooftops of their respective houses.
Lolay recitation
Lolay is celebrated as a part of Lomba celebration in Haa and Paro valleys. Lomba is incomplete without the children reciting Lolay in front of each household. The term Lolay means ‘prosperous year,’ and to recite the verses is lolay jang-ni, the children participating are known as lolay jang-me.
On Lomba, children go in small groups carrying a long pole and cane basket. The sound of their Lolay incantations fills the air. They use the pole to knock on the front window of each house. Every household is expected to welcome the children. The children go from house to house and at the end of the day, their baskets or bags are filled with Hoen-tey, meat, money, grains and other gifts, which they later use for a grand picnic feast.
It is believed that children are the harbingers of good fortune, and recitation of Lolay consists of specific wishes for the household to welcome the New Year with health, wealth and happiness.
Family and Social gathering
Every member of a household, irrespective of where they are, tries to go home for Lomba. On Lomba, everyone in the family is expected to do things together. The day begins by cleaning every corner of the house in the morning. All family members dress in brand-new clothes. After that, they proceed to make Hoen-tey while laughing and conversing about their new experiences, especially if someone travelled home for Lomba for the first time since moving. Children form a group and go house to house reciting Lolay incantation.
Men go to play archery, khuru or dae-go, and women follow them with packed lunch, with varieties of food items. In most places, meat forms an important part of the Lomba diet, with a wide variety such as beef, pork, chicken, and yak meat. People of all ages enjoy their days to the fullest, and all work is laid aside in favor of delicious food and drink, socializing, dancing, and singing. In the evening, each family member takes turn for Men-chu hot stone bath. Traditionally all Haaps were considered a year older after Lomba, and often they would joke that one has to hide in a basement to avoid getting a year older.
Currently, the gatherings are growing smaller as more people move away from their village homes, and the majority are employed in situations where they are not likely to get formal leave to return and celebrate Lomba.
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