Calendar Day

Calendar Day (tshes)

• The days of the lunar month which form the basis of the Tibetan calendar are numbered consecutively from one to thirty, with the full-moon of each month falling on the fifteenth day. Important Buddhist ceremonies are associated with specific calendar days: rites pertaining to the Medicine Buddha, for example, are held on the eighth day, those associated with Padmasambhava are observed on the tenth day, and those associated with the ḍākinīs on the twenty-fifth day. The thirty calendar days may also be calculated according to the sequence of the twelve animals, the eight trigrams, the nine numeric squares, the nine planets, the tomb signs, or the twelve sectors of growth and decline. In accordance with certain astronomical observations, a specific calendar day may be omitted (chad) or doubled (lhag). The impact of the calendar day has importance for natal horoscope, as well as for divinations concerning marriage and ill-health. GD (from the Glossary to Tibetan Elemental Divination Paintings)