What festivals does Tibetan Buddhism have in a year?

Tibetan Buddhism refers to the branch of Buddhism introduced into Tibet. Like Han Buddhism and Southern Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism has many traditional festivals, which are commemorated by monks and secular believers. But the dates of these festivals are mainly based on the Tibetan calendar, so let the Buddhist calendar tell you what Tibetan Buddhist festivals are there in a year.

From the first day to the fifteenth day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar, it is not only the Tibetan New Year, but also an important defection of the Buddha. In the history of Buddhism, Sakyamuni showed miraculous changes every day for several days in a row, which made the heretics who came to challenge the competition finally bow down and convert to Buddhism. In these two weeks, it is a day to commemorate our teacher, Sakyamuni Buddha, who conquered pagans with his magical power.

In the past, during this period, Lhasa held a grand blessing ceremony, and tens of thousands of monks from the three major temples gathered in Jokhang Temple to recite scriptures, and donors from all sides gathered to provide support. In the city, all parties try to have a respected mage in the town to preach Buddhism (mostly choose the story of Buddha), and also invite a special statue of Maitreya Buddha to be paraded around by monks.

In addition, during this period, there will be three Buddhist monks debating the exam to select the graduates with the highest honor. This level of examination is extremely strict. The Dalai Lama personally invigilated the exam on the spot, with the participation of the elders of the three major temples and the presence of tens of thousands of monks. The graduates of this level of examination are called "Geshiramba", which can be said to be equivalent to the highest honorary doctorate of Buddhism.

April in the Tibetan calendar is called "Sakyamuni Month", which is the holiest month in a year, commemorating the birth (eighth day), becoming a Buddha and dying (fifteenth day) of Sakyamuni. At this point, Buddhism in the Han Dynasty is different (the days to commemorate the Buddha's awakening are different).

The fourth day of June is a sacred day to commemorate the Buddha's first becoming a five-bhikkhu in Luoguyuan. According to Buddhist scriptures, the Buddha's mother (actually called Prince Siddhartha's mother) died shortly after the birth of the Buddha (who was still Prince Siddhartha at that time, but had not yet made his debut) and was reincarnated in heaven. After the Buddha became a Buddha, he was once said to be the mother of heaven.

On September 22, Tibet returned to our world to commemorate the Buddha's saying that heaven is his mother. This day is called "Descent Day". However, "Heaven is the day of its mother's words" is not taken seriously, but there are also specific days to commemorate it.

Among the four holy days mentioned above, it is said that due to the power of Buddha, the karma between good karma and evil karma has increased by hundreds of millions of times, so it is particularly beneficial to practice, and special attention must be paid to abstaining from evil. In addition, various sects also have their own holy days, such as the Lotus Master Memorial Day and the Zong Kaba Master Memorial Day (1October 25th).

Master Zong Kaba Memorial Day

Zong Kaba Memorial Day is a big day that Tibet, Mongolia and many other places attached great importance to in Han Dynasty. On that day, all the regular monasteries and many other monasteries and ordinary people lit a large number of oil lamps outdoors, roofs and other places to commemorate. In some areas, because there is no habit of providing lamps with ghee, a plant called "round root" will be made into a lamp vessel to provide lamps on that day, so some people call this sacred day "round root ceremony".

In addition to the above days, Tibetan Buddhism also attaches importance to solar and lunar eclipses and the eighth, fifteenth and thirtieth days of each month, which are special days for practicing and accepting the precepts of Mahayana Baguan Pavilion. Every month 10 and 25th are the days when practitioners hold prayer meetings. The 29th of each month is the day to worship the dharma.

Although the calculation methods of Tibetan calendar and Han calendar are similar, the leap year between them is not necessarily the same, so there is often a whole month difference between Tibetan calendar and Han calendar (for example, in 2000 AD, there was a leap month in Tibetan calendar, but not in Han calendar, and in a certain month, the difference between them began to be one month. It was not until the leap month of China calendar appeared in 200 1 year that the two were re-aligned), and the calculation of the two was often one day apart.

In addition, there are many famous festivals in Tibet, such as the Snowdon Festival and the Bathing Festival. During these festivals and activities, most of them have strong national characteristics and less religious origins.