Rabjung
A Tibetan year is properly identified by three parts. The first two, the Animal and Element, correspond roughly to similar identifiers used in the Chinese calendar. The third part is the Rabjung (rab byung, rab byung). The Rabjung are 60-year cycles, the first of which began in 1027 C.E. We are currently in the 17th Rabjung, which began on February 28, 1987.
Unfortunately, pre-modern Tibetan literature doesn't always identify dates with all three of these parts — often only the animal and element are explicitly mentioned (and sometimes not even these are given). However, if you can narrow the author's dates to within a century or so, then it's not hard to figure out the rabjung for yourself.
Each year of a Rabjung cycle spans two Western years. This is because the Tibetan New Year or Losar (lo gsar, lo gsar) falls in either February or March.
1) me yos fire rabbit year, 1st of rabjung;
2) rabjung;
3) renounce the householder's life and take monastic vows;
4) monk/ nun;
4); 5) renunciate, hopelessness;
6) [fully] ordained/ ordination;
7) attain excellence;
8) lay-vows [IW]
ordination of renunciation, division of time (60 years), renounced perfectly, he that has taken orders, clerical person, name of 1st year of cycle of 60 years, SA rab tu 'byung ba, rab tu byung ba, renunciate, the sixty-year cycle in the Tibetan calendar, sixty year cycles [JV]
renunciate. ordination of a renunciate lay-vows. monks Syn rab tu byung ba renunciate, homelessness. the first year Syn me mo yos fully ordained attain excellence. Syn khyim nas khyim med par rab tu byung;
1) monks Syn rab tu byung ba.
2) renunciate, homelessness.
3) the first year Syn me mo yos 4) fully ordained attain excellence. ordination of a renunciate lay-vows. Syn khyim nas khyim med par rab tu byung; monks; ordained; a monk
