Months
During the time of the Tibetan Yar-lung Dynasty (7th – 9th century) Tibetan months (zla-ba, ཟླ་བ་ ) were named according to the four seasons:
- First spring month (dpyid-zla ra-ba), middle spring month (dpyid-zla 'bring-po), last spring month (dpyid-zla mtha'-chung),
- first summer month (dbyar-zla-zla ra-ba), middle summer month (dbyar-zla 'bring-po), last summer month (dbyar-zla mtha'-chung),
- first autumn month (ston-zla ra-ba), middle autumn month (ston-zla 'bring-po), last autumn month (ston-zla mtha'-chung),
- first winter month (dgun-zla ra-ba), middle winter month (dgun-zla 'bring-po) and last winter month (dgun-zla mtha'-chung).
From the 12th century onwards each month has been named by the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac:
- stag (Tiger), yos (hare), 'brug (dragon), sbrul (snake), rta (horse), lug (sheep),
- spre'u (monkey), bya (bird), khyi (dog), phag (pig), byi (mouse) and glang (ox).
With the introduction of the calendar of Kalacakratantra in the second half of the 11th century, months were also named via lunar mansions within which, roughly speaking, a full moon took place each month:
- mchu, dbo, nag, sa-ga, snron, chu-stod, gro-bzhin, khrums, tha-skar, smin-drug, mgo and rgyal.
In the second half of the 13th century the famous ruler chos-rgyal 'Phags-pa introduced the system of counting the month by ordinal numbers, the so-called Hor (=Mongolian)-month:
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All these systems of counting or naming months were used up to modern times.
Read more about this topic: Tibetan Calendar
Famous quotes containing the word months:
“He’s always been king of his world, but we’ll teach him fear.... Why in a few months it’ll be up in lights on Broadway: Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World.”
—James Creelman. Merian C. Cooper. Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong)
“What a vast fraternity it is,—that of ‘Hearts that Ache.’ For the last three months it has seemed to me as though all society were coming to me, to drop its mask for a moment and initiate me into the mystery. How we do suffer! And we go on laughing; for, as a practical joke at our expense, life is a success.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“And do not pity C. Q. One had to choose between him and H. H., and one wanted H. H. to exist at least a couple of months longer, so as to have him make you live in the minds of later generations. I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)