Full Moon Rising

The most important festival for Tibetan Buddhism, the 'Saga Dawa Festival' commemorates Sakyamuni's Buddhahood and the death of his mortal body. At every monastery sutras are recited and 'Cham' dances are performed. It is said that good deeds in the month of this festival deserve 300 fold in return and this leads many people to donate large sums to the religious orders, monasteries and to the beggars that gather at this time of year

The township of Bodh Gaya has the flavour of Buddhist Multiculturalism, and nowhere can Saga Dawa be better experienced, except, perhaps in the Monasteries of Sikkim. I have observed the festival in Pemayangtse, and at Lachung.

 Bodh Gaya, however, remains my preferred destination in May every year,  when the full moon of Buddha Purnima rises over the world, commemorating the birth of the Compassionate One.

On the eve of Saga Dawa, the sleepy township jerks awake to the footfall of pilgrims alighting from their chosen modes of transport. Bodh Gaya woken up from its mid-summer siesta, is suddenly bustling again. There are special lighting arrangements at the Mahabodhi Temple, joss sticks to be sold, offerings to be prepared, knick-knacks to be hawked, and of course resting places of every kind to be readied for pilgrims rich and poor.

Bodh Gaya rises early on Saga Dawa morning, when the Buddhists of different denominations gather at a spot [usually the mammoth 80 feet Buddha Statue] to go in procession towards the main monastery. There are the Ambedkarites, the visibly dowdier of the pilgrims, their robes of bright, cheap cotton, some proudly wearing their Maharashtrian topis. There are the well manicured devotees from Korea, in their raiment of white. The robust Tibetans are the most assured, their russet brown robes and measured chants fill the morning air. It’s a festive, noisy, almost carnival like procession, with children from the schools supported by Buddhist charities joining in.

In Sikkim, the occasion is a solemn one. The procession is almost regal. People line up on both sides of the road in reverent silence, some stepping forward to be touched on the head with the holy scriptures that the younger acolytes carry at the head of the procession.

God in heaven is believed to descend to the mortal world on this day.

Saga Dawa is  15th day of the fourth month on the Tibetan calendar. It is the birthday of Sakyamuni, and the day when he died and attained Nirvana. During this period, hundreds of thousands of people turn their prayer wheels on the street in Lhasa, and then paddle boats in the Dragon King Pool, and sing and dance in the afternoon.

 In Bodh Gaya, Bihar, it’s a spectacle, very distracting, and not so awe-inspiring perhaps, but definitely one that’s worth returning to year after year.