nirvana day

hello girls, today (for tibetans) or tomorrow (for some south east asian countries) we celebrate the birth, death and enlightenment of Buddha. informally, it is called the 'Buddha's birthday' but it actually encompasses the birth, enlightenment and passing away (parinirvana in sanskrit, which means the final nirvana, which occurs upon the death of the body of someone who has attained complete awakening). here, we called it vesak (in sinhalese language, sanskrit is 'vaisakha'), tibetan call it 'saga dawa', japanese call it 'hanamatsuri' (花祭), and 'Buddha Purnima' in india, nepal and bangladesh. anyway all the same. but the dates varies according to the different calendars.

what happened today about 2500 years ago, in 483 BCE (before common era)...

''Forty-five years had passed since the Lord Buddha's enlightenment, and the Blessed One was 80 years old. He and his monks were staying in the village of Beluvagamaka (or Beluva), which was near the present-day city of Basrah, Bihar state, northeast India. It was the time of the monsoon rains retreat, when the Buddha and his disciples stopped traveling.

One day the Buddha asked the monks to leave and find other places to stay during the monsoon. He would remain in Beluvagamaka with only his cousin and companion, Ananda. After the monks had left, Ananda could see that his master was ill...... '' read the whole story

hopefully in future, i can make a thangka accounting this significant day.

"All composite things pass away. Strive for your own liberation with diligence." - Buddha's last words.