Gutor དགུ་གཏོར་ is an intensive Vajrayana practice undertaken to purify negativities, repair broken vows, and remove obstacles accumulated over the past year. The practice is centered on a wrathful deity, in the Dudjom Tersar tradition commonly the deity Vajrakilaya རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕུར་པ་, the wrathful form of the Vajrasattva, who's enlightened activity cuts through obstacles.
Gu དགུ་ means "nine" — in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the last number before the numbers repeat again. It can also refer to the nine inauspicious conditions that can accumulate over the course of a year: short life, illness, harmful speech, financial loss, bad luck, increasing enmity, fear, unfulfilled wishes, and the breaking of one's vows. Tor གཏོར་ refers to the Torma offering through which these negativities are expelled and cast out. Together, Gutor is the practice of actively purifying obstacles and inauspicious conditions before they carry forward into the new year. 

According to the Tibetan Buddhist lunisolar calendar, this occurs annually on ཉི་ཤུ་དགུ་ (Nyishu Gu), the 29th "Dharma Protector" day of the 12th month, the second to last day of the lunar year. According to the Gregorian calendar, we will observe Gutor this year on February 16, 2026. The day after Gutor is གནམ་གང་ (Namgang) or 30th Shakyamuni Buddha Day, considered one of the recurring auspicious days of month where virtuous and non-virtuous actions are multiplied ten-fold. Namgang, the 30th day of the 12th lunar month is also a day of reset and cleaning in preparation for the new year. It is followed by Losar, the first day of the new year and the beginning of the extremely auspicious ཆོ་འཕྲུལ་ཟླ་བ་ (Chotrul Dawa), the Month of the Display of Buddha's Miracles.

For more dates, including auspicious days for personal practice, visit our Calendar.​​​​