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Concealed in a deep ravine of the world, you come across the Hemis Gompa (Hemis monastery) round the mountain. The festival of Hemis Gompa brings families of Ladakhis close together as they begin arriving from all over the valley. Their ornate festival clothing reveals a Tibetan, rather than Indian, heritage.
Bright cummerbunds on the quilted coats adorn the men who are on their way to the mela. Many women wear the perak, an elaborate headdress with woven strips of beads and turquoise, silver dangles, and upright ears of braided yak hair.
Each family carries a savovar of yak-butter tea, and a canister of tsampa, a roasted barley flour.
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The dances are accompanied by discordant sounds of brass trumpets that are three meters (10 feet) long. The lamas (monks) get transformed into demons and gods.
Horned devil-masks and padded brocade outfits come to life as they play out the scriptured battles between good and evil spirits. Lamas with red-robes and tall tufted hats bang on drums and crash symbols together as others gyrate and leap to fight off demons.
This two-day festival depicts a dance-homage to the birth anniversary of Guru Padmasambhava .The festival is the largest and best of the Tibetan Buddhist gompa festivals in Ladakh. The lamas themselves offer contradictory explanations as to the meanings of the dances.
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Showing posts with label buddhist festivals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label buddhist festivals. Show all posts
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Losar - Buddhist festivals - Tibetan New Year
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Losar festival is celebrated to commemorate the advent of new year. It is the Ladakhi or Tibetan new year. The festival is celebrated for 2 weeks during the month of December and january as per the lunar calendar. The festival is marked with ancient rituals,the stage fights between good & evil, chanting and passing through the crowds with fire torches. The dance of the Ibex deer and the dramatic battles between the King & his ministers add to the joyous atmosphere. This festival is full of music, dancing and merry-making.
Origin, Significance and Legends
Kings hate to miss new year parties, too. Singme Namgyar, king of Sikkim, brought the Buddhist New Year celebrations forward by a month because he was going to be out at war on New Year's day!
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Even today, Sonam Losar, the Buddhist New Year festival in Sikkim, begins a month before the Buddhist New Year. Tibetans and other Buddhists in India kick off Losar festivities a month later - a week before new year's day, in fact.
For all Buddhists, Losar is a sacred time and a time for feasting and celebration. It is a time to be with the family, and a time to ensure that bad omens are not carried into the new year.
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Rituals
Homes are painted, new clothes are stitched, debts and quarrels are resolved, good food is cooked, and intoxicants are drunk in the run-up to New Year's day. Homes are decorated with flour paintings of the sun and moon, and small lamps illuminate the house at night.
The first few days of festivities are exclusively family affairs, as are the first days of the new year. Later, the festivities roll out onto the streets. Tab-zan, a special bread, features in the family meals.
In Sikkim, on the fifth day of Losar, a special broth of boiled barley grains, peas and the stomach of a sheep, is prepared. Dib rug, a dish made by stuffing sheep intestines with barley dough kneaded in sheep blood, is another speciality during Losar.
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In the night, the swishing sound of burning torches can be heard around a Buddhist home, as menfolk whirl flaming torches over their heads in an effort to ward off evil spirits, sickness, dog bites and other misfortunes from striking their family in the new year.
Since the new year is on the cards, Buddhist families take special care to ensure that positive things happen all the time. So, the ceremonies are umpteen.
In Sikkim, a male and female goat are sacrificed after a purification ceremony in which the animals are washed, their ears are stitched with ribbon, their bodies are smeared red, and they are made to drink the local brew, chang.
In another ceremony named Mesol, the family visit the resting places of their ancestors, light a lamp, and offer food and drinks. The family then eat the food, which is considered blessed. In some homes, the men race through the house firing guns or crackers. Costume dramas are performed. Archery contests and horse races are held. And everywhere, chang flows.
On the morning of the new year, families rise before dawn, bathe, put on new clothes and fine jewellery. Offerings of barley flour mixed with butter and sugar and yogurt are then made at the family shrine. This represents the hope for a good grain harvest. After a visit to local monasteries, the family settles down to feasting and drinking.
Celebrated In
Losar is celebrated as Sonam Losar in Sikkim, and also elsewhere in India by Buddhists.
back to : home page
Losar festival is celebrated to commemorate the advent of new year. It is the Ladakhi or Tibetan new year. The festival is celebrated for 2 weeks during the month of December and january as per the lunar calendar. The festival is marked with ancient rituals,the stage fights between good & evil, chanting and passing through the crowds with fire torches. The dance of the Ibex deer and the dramatic battles between the King & his ministers add to the joyous atmosphere. This festival is full of music, dancing and merry-making.
Origin, Significance and Legends
Kings hate to miss new year parties, too. Singme Namgyar, king of Sikkim, brought the Buddhist New Year celebrations forward by a month because he was going to be out at war on New Year's day!
back to : home page
Even today, Sonam Losar, the Buddhist New Year festival in Sikkim, begins a month before the Buddhist New Year. Tibetans and other Buddhists in India kick off Losar festivities a month later - a week before new year's day, in fact.
For all Buddhists, Losar is a sacred time and a time for feasting and celebration. It is a time to be with the family, and a time to ensure that bad omens are not carried into the new year.
back to : home page
Rituals
Homes are painted, new clothes are stitched, debts and quarrels are resolved, good food is cooked, and intoxicants are drunk in the run-up to New Year's day. Homes are decorated with flour paintings of the sun and moon, and small lamps illuminate the house at night.
The first few days of festivities are exclusively family affairs, as are the first days of the new year. Later, the festivities roll out onto the streets. Tab-zan, a special bread, features in the family meals.
In Sikkim, on the fifth day of Losar, a special broth of boiled barley grains, peas and the stomach of a sheep, is prepared. Dib rug, a dish made by stuffing sheep intestines with barley dough kneaded in sheep blood, is another speciality during Losar.
back to : home page
In the night, the swishing sound of burning torches can be heard around a Buddhist home, as menfolk whirl flaming torches over their heads in an effort to ward off evil spirits, sickness, dog bites and other misfortunes from striking their family in the new year.
Since the new year is on the cards, Buddhist families take special care to ensure that positive things happen all the time. So, the ceremonies are umpteen.
In Sikkim, a male and female goat are sacrificed after a purification ceremony in which the animals are washed, their ears are stitched with ribbon, their bodies are smeared red, and they are made to drink the local brew, chang.
In another ceremony named Mesol, the family visit the resting places of their ancestors, light a lamp, and offer food and drinks. The family then eat the food, which is considered blessed. In some homes, the men race through the house firing guns or crackers. Costume dramas are performed. Archery contests and horse races are held. And everywhere, chang flows.
On the morning of the new year, families rise before dawn, bathe, put on new clothes and fine jewellery. Offerings of barley flour mixed with butter and sugar and yogurt are then made at the family shrine. This represents the hope for a good grain harvest. After a visit to local monasteries, the family settles down to feasting and drinking.
Celebrated In
Losar is celebrated as Sonam Losar in Sikkim, and also elsewhere in India by Buddhists.
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Ullambana Sutra - Buddhist Festival
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Ullambana festival is the most popular festival in China and Japan. On this day it is believed that the "Gates of the Hell" are opened and the dead ones pay visit to their loved ones. During this festival offerings are made to the spirits of the dead and to the hungry ghosts in order to bring good fortune and luck. It is celebrated on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month.
Origin, Significance and Legends
Ullambana is the festival of deliverance, and advocates and reinforces the concept of filial piety. The word ullambana translates into "deliverance from suffering", and specifically refers to the salvation that is granted to tormented souls in hell.
According to Buddhist legend, the observance of this festival is based on the story of Maudgalyayana (Moginlin or Mogganalla, as per Oriental legends) and his mother.
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Maudgalyayana discovers through his meditative powers that his mother has been reborn in the realms of pain and suffering. When he learns that her spirit is being subjected to hunger and misery, he decides to go to the netherworld to relieve her of her suffering.
Once he goes there, Maudgalyayana finds his mother starving and in a pitiful state. He offers her food, but when she tries to eat it, the food turns to smouldering pieces of charcoal.
Maudgalyayana is distressed and seeks advice and help from his master, the Buddha. Buddha tells him that his mother's offences are deep-rooted and that he alone will not be able to ease her sufferings. He advises Maudgalyayana to make offerings of five fruits, incense, oil, lamps, candles, beds and bedding to the assembled members of the Order and pray along with them for the liberation of his mother's soul.
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The Buddha also tells Maudgalyayana that by making such an offering, not only his mother but his forefathers and kith and kin will also escape suffering and attain eternal bliss and salvation.
The day on which Maudgalyayana performed the act of compassionate filial conduct and brought salvation to his forefathers is celebrated as Ullambana. It is observed on the 15th day of the seventh Buddhist lunar month, and occurs in August in the Augustan calendar.
On this day, Buddhists offer prayers both to their departed forefathers and to their living parents and elders.
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It is generally believed that one who performs a good deed accumulates spiritual merit. It is considered an even more pious act when the merit earned is shared with departed souls, which will help them to be reborn in good realms and alleviate their suffering.
Ullambana is celebrated by Buddhists the world over. Though there are slight variations in certain customs and beliefs, the fundamental rituals remain essentially the same. Besides offering prayers to the souls of deceased ancestors and welfare of their parents, people carry offerings such as food, medicine and clothes for monks and nuns in monasteries.
In China and Taiwan, Ullambana has absorbed the traditional Ghost Festival, which has the similar goal of praying for the welfare of departed souls. The two festivals are together celebrated as Chung Yuan Putu, translated as "Mid-origin Passage to Universal Salvation". On this day, an offering of meat, together with a prodigious table of wine is made to one's ancestors and ghosts from the netherworld.
In Singapore, the festival is known as Ching Ming Jie.
The date of Ullambana depends on the calendar that is followed, and varies slightly in different parts of the world.
back to : home page
Ullambana festival is the most popular festival in China and Japan. On this day it is believed that the "Gates of the Hell" are opened and the dead ones pay visit to their loved ones. During this festival offerings are made to the spirits of the dead and to the hungry ghosts in order to bring good fortune and luck. It is celebrated on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month.
Origin, Significance and Legends
Ullambana is the festival of deliverance, and advocates and reinforces the concept of filial piety. The word ullambana translates into "deliverance from suffering", and specifically refers to the salvation that is granted to tormented souls in hell.
According to Buddhist legend, the observance of this festival is based on the story of Maudgalyayana (Moginlin or Mogganalla, as per Oriental legends) and his mother.
back to : home page
Maudgalyayana discovers through his meditative powers that his mother has been reborn in the realms of pain and suffering. When he learns that her spirit is being subjected to hunger and misery, he decides to go to the netherworld to relieve her of her suffering.
Once he goes there, Maudgalyayana finds his mother starving and in a pitiful state. He offers her food, but when she tries to eat it, the food turns to smouldering pieces of charcoal.
Maudgalyayana is distressed and seeks advice and help from his master, the Buddha. Buddha tells him that his mother's offences are deep-rooted and that he alone will not be able to ease her sufferings. He advises Maudgalyayana to make offerings of five fruits, incense, oil, lamps, candles, beds and bedding to the assembled members of the Order and pray along with them for the liberation of his mother's soul.
back to : home page
The Buddha also tells Maudgalyayana that by making such an offering, not only his mother but his forefathers and kith and kin will also escape suffering and attain eternal bliss and salvation.
The day on which Maudgalyayana performed the act of compassionate filial conduct and brought salvation to his forefathers is celebrated as Ullambana. It is observed on the 15th day of the seventh Buddhist lunar month, and occurs in August in the Augustan calendar.
On this day, Buddhists offer prayers both to their departed forefathers and to their living parents and elders.
back to : home page
It is generally believed that one who performs a good deed accumulates spiritual merit. It is considered an even more pious act when the merit earned is shared with departed souls, which will help them to be reborn in good realms and alleviate their suffering.
Ullambana is celebrated by Buddhists the world over. Though there are slight variations in certain customs and beliefs, the fundamental rituals remain essentially the same. Besides offering prayers to the souls of deceased ancestors and welfare of their parents, people carry offerings such as food, medicine and clothes for monks and nuns in monasteries.
In China and Taiwan, Ullambana has absorbed the traditional Ghost Festival, which has the similar goal of praying for the welfare of departed souls. The two festivals are together celebrated as Chung Yuan Putu, translated as "Mid-origin Passage to Universal Salvation". On this day, an offering of meat, together with a prodigious table of wine is made to one's ancestors and ghosts from the netherworld.
In Singapore, the festival is known as Ching Ming Jie.
The date of Ullambana depends on the calendar that is followed, and varies slightly in different parts of the world.
back to : home page
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