BUDDHA JAYANTI – CELEBRATING THE ENLIGHTENED ONE

For 2500 years, the Buddhist world has regarded Nepal as sacred ground – for it has been the home of many great Buddhist teachers, both Tibetan and Indian, and most important, it is the birthplace of Lord Buddha.

The day of Buddha’s birth is known as Buddha Jayanti and is celebrated on the full moon in April or May. It is a day of triple blessing as it commemorates three major events in Buddha’s life: his birth, his enlightenment and finally his passing away into complete Nirvana. Siddhartha was born about 566 BC, the only son of a royal family. His mother Queen Maya had a dream foretelling the birth of a remarkable being, in which a white elephant with nine tusks came down from the heavens and entered her body. During a journey homeward, Queen Maya stopped under a fig tree, and when she raised her arm to rest it on a branch above, the baby Prince Siddhartha emerged from her right side. He immediately took seven steps in the four directions, and each step left a lotus flower where his foot touches the ground.

A sage had told the King that his son was destined either to be a great ruler, or else to refuse the throne, leave the world and become a great spiritual teacher. Fearful of losing his son, the King isolated Prince Siddhartha in the royal palace, giving him all the pleasures a man could desire, hiding from him the world of suffering. One day Sidhartha ventured outside the castle walls and saw for the first time a beggar, a sick person, a corpse, and a holy man. The encounters affected him deeply, awakening a desire to find the ultimate cause of suffering and the way to end it. He cast aside his princely garments, cut his long hair and began a life as a wandering ascetic.

For many years he fasted and mediated, trying to find a method to end the suffering of sentient beings. On the dawn of a full moon night in the north Indian town of Bodh Gaya, Siddhartha had the direct realization of the way things truly exist. Prince Siddhartha became the Buddha, the Enlightened One. He spent the rest of his life teaching and guiding thousands of followers, and passed away at 80, leaving the world simple instructions for the path to freedom from suffering and the development of compassion for all sentient beings.

In Nepal, Buddha Jayanti is observed by both Hindus and Buddhists. In the Kathmandu Valley, the celebration centers on the ancient Buddhist shrines of Swayambhunath and Bouddhanath. At the great stupa of Swayambhunath, situated on a hill west of Kathmandu, the light of butter lamps blazes all through this night as it has for over 2000 years. It is a night of fasting and chanting. Morning finds the stupa gaily decorated with fluttering prayer flags. Thangka and religious paintings are unrolled and displayed in front of the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries around the stupa. Monks perform long rituals and walk in procession with horns, cymbals and colorful head-dresses.

On the other side of town, at the immense white stupa of Bouddhanath, crowds of Tibetans, Tamangs and Sherpas gather for merrymaking. An image of the Buddha is mounted on an elephant leading a procession which circles the stupa and winds through the streets to another stupa at nearby Chabahil. The streets are lined with people – women in smart Tibetan dresses, wearing fabulous coral and turquoise necklaces, rows of big and little monks, and young men in bright Hong Kong fashions.

Large symbolic lotus petals are painted on the stupa with yellow dye made from pounds of expensive saffron. Prayer flags fill the air, and when night falls, the stupa and balconies of monasteries and home sparkle with the light of thousands of candles and butterlamps. It’s a time of joy and devotion, and a time of thanks to the Prince who left his palace to bring to the world the teachings of great compassion.