iVillage

Every 12th year, whenever the animal sign for the current year is the same as your birth year, is considered Lo-Khak—anauspiciuos. This is the most feared of the inauspicious-years techniques.

You might expect that a year which has the same sign as your birth year would be lucky or auspicious. Not in the Tibetan system. If your birth sign and the current year sign are the same (every 12 years) then this, as mentioned, is an example of LO-KHAK, which is very inauspicious. For men, the year before a LO-KHAK (termed NANG-KHAK) is a little more difficult than the LO-KHAK itself, for women, it is the year after LO-KHAK (termed CHI-KHAK) that is difficult.

Lo-Khak Years

12 to 13 years age
24 to 25 years of age
36 to 37 years of age
48 to 49 years of age
60 to 61 years of age
72 to 73 years of age
84 to 85 years of age
96 to 97 years of age

During a Lo-khak year, there are reputedly six months of particular danger when you are most vulnerable :

Bird Month 2nd half very bad
Dog Month 1st half very bad
Pig Month Passable
Mouse Month 2nd half very bad
Ox Month 1st half very bad
Tiger Month Passable
Hare Month 2nd half very bad
Dragon Month Entire month very bad
Snake month 1st half very bad
Horse month Passable
Sheep Month 2nd half very bad
Monkey Month Entire month very bad
Bird Month 1st half very bad

If the current year sign is the 7th or opposite of the birth sign, this is called Dun-zur and is also bad. If the current year is the 5th sign (i.e. Dragon-Monkey), then this is also not good. If the current year is same element as the birth element, then this too is not-so-good.