Updated 2026-11-12
The 60-Year Tibetan Element–Animal Cycle
Every year in the Tibetan-Mongolian calendar carries one of the twelve animals and one of the five elements. The same pairing — like the Fire Horse or the Water Dragon — returns only once every 60 years. Here are all sixty.
Your sign by birth year
2026: Fire Horse
Gold lines join the sign with its allies, the dashed line with its best match; red marks the opposite sign. Tap a sign to open it.
Next 30 days by animal compatibility
The 12 animals of zurkhai
Good days are those of your allies, your best match and your own animal; tense days belong to the opposite sign.
Born in January or early February? The Tibetan year starts at Losar, so your sign may be the previous year's.
How to read your element–animal year
Find your birth year's animal — it repeats every twelve years — and its element, which changes every two years through Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Together they place you in the 60-year cycle: anyone born in 2026 is a Fire Horse, someone born in 1990 a Metal Horse, and the same pairing only returns sixty years later. Each element colours the animal's nature with its own quality. Unlike a Western sun sign that fixes one trait for life, the year-sign is always read alongside the daily calendar — so a Fire Horse still has favourable and unfavourable days like everyone else. Tap any pairing below to read what it means and the years it falls on.
Rat
Ox
Tiger
Rabbit
Dragon
Snake
Horse
Sheep
Monkey
Rooster
Dog
Pig
What is zurkhai? → · Tibetan calendar 2026 →
Animal/element traits and yearly outlooks are presented as traditional belief, not fact, and vary between astrologers and lineages.