Vessantara Festival | |
---|---|
Also called | Boun Pha Vet (in Laos) Medin Full Moon Poya (in Sri Lanka) Thet Mahachat (in Thailand) |
Observed by | Thais, Lao, Sri Lankans, Cambodians and Burmese |
Type | Buddhist |
Significance | Commemorates the Vessantara Jataka |
Date | Full moon day of the 12th lunar month |
The Vessantara Festival is one of the 12 monthly Buddhist festivals celebrated yearly in Theravada Buddhist pagodas in memory of Vessantara, remembered as the penultimate life of the Buddha. It is the only previous life of the Buddha which is celebrated with such importance.
The festival is usually celebrated in the preaching hall or sala of the local temple or wat, beginning early in the morning and lasting until midnight. The festival usually takes place yearly for three full days between February and April, during the fourth lunar month. [1]
The festival includes a procession of one thousand balls of sticky rice to the temple to symbolize each verse of the long chant. [2] ,; the process of listening to the nonstop sermon on the Great Birth at the temple; merit making to transfer it to the deceased relatives and the departure of a "caravan", buffaloes, and oxcart for sale in distant lands.
A few days preceding the feast, stages are built to host to folk opera and popular dancing. A pavilion to store paddy contributions is constructed. The reception hall is decorated with painted cloths. Old women roll cigarettes, make betel-nut packets, and candles.
The spirit of Upagupta is invited to come from the Mekong River and enter a statue, which is then carried to the temple holding the festival. In the areas where there is no river, the spirit can be invited through normal water pipes, as in Vientiane in Laos. Upagupta is supposed to protect the ritual surroundings of the temple during the performance. Before the recitation of the Vessantara Jataka, other figures are invoked through a sort of recitation of a text called "The Ten Thousand Malay" found in printed Lao version of the Vessantara Jataka.
On the morning of the third day, after a ceremony in which respect is paid to the tevada who are asked to witness the merit-making ceremony, the procession of 1000 lumps of rice takes place without just the faithful and no monks. [3]
The three-day celebration focuses on monks who recite the story of the second-to-last incarnation of Buddha as Prince Vessantara. The long chant consisting of a thousand verses, was originally recorded on fourteen sets of palm-leaf manuscripts. The monks recite the full story in vernacular language without intermission in a performance lasting between twelve and eighteen hours. [4]
The original text of the Vessantara Jataka sermon was entirely in Pali; it is now customarily recited in the vernacular languages with some Pali stanzas interspersed throughout, but these cannot be understood by most laity. At the end of each chapter and before the following one, a hard-mallet pin piet ensemble customarily plays from a standard repertoire. Those who know the pieces can detect which chapter is about to start, even from a distance. Today, such complete performances are rare. [5]
The Vessantara Festival or Great Birth festival was once "one of the most theatrical of all the Buddhist festivals". [6]
Monks and novices were invited to perform the characters of the Vessantara story.
Some of the scenes, especially the mismatched couple formed by Jujaka, the old Brahmin, and his young wife Amittada, are attractive for the public during the festival. [7] The parts of the story in which Matrsi and Jujaka appear as extremes of tragedy and comedy: the Matsi episodes elicit great sadness as Matsi mourns the loss of her children while the Jujuaka episodes elicit gales of laughter when Jujaka is shown to be a buffoon.
The celebration of the Vessantara Jataka varies from region to region throughout the ritual calendar. [8] While it has lost its traditional importance in some areas, in others it has gained in popularity. [9]
According to the Angkorian inscription No. K. 485, which was found at Phimeanakas temple and composed by Princess Indradevi in the 13th century AD, the Vessantara Jataka was performed as a religious dance. This tradition of performances has not completely been lost from the Khmer tradition, as the Vessantara jataka is nowadays celebrated as a theatrical performance during the festival by non-professional actors. As the monks were proclaim each section, villagers are selected to dress up as the main characters in the story.
Today, Buddhists in a village around any given pagoda take turns to read out the total of 13 volumes of the Vessantara Jataka.
The celebration starts with the parade of an ikat silk cloth featuring the story of Vessantara. [10]
The festival ends with a procession of all the participants around the pagoda carrying various offerings as if accompagnying Vassantara back to his kingdom. [11]
Mentioned in the Burmese historical chronicle Maha Yazawin, the arahan Shin Upagutta is another important figure in the Burmese version of the Vessantara Festival.
During the Boun Pha Vet in Laos, for 3 days and 3 nights, the monks take turns to read about the life of King Phavet.
In Laos, as well as in Isan, a long painted scroll held aloft by young and old and accompanied by drums and dancers, is taken in procession from the forest through the village lanes to the pagoda, bringing Prince Vessentara back to his city. In carrying the scroll, and performing the narrative, villagers create a visual and material universe conveying meanings beyond the written text. [12]
In Sri Lanka, verses of lament from the text Vessantara Kāvya are often recited at the corpse of a relative who just died, especially the verses of Madri mourning the loss of her children. This text was composed in Sri Lanka in the early modern period by a secular poet, and emphasizes abandonment and emotional desolation. The themes were very popular among the ordinary people, though the emphasis was very different than the earlier Buddhist texts. [13]
In Thailand, the Vessantara Jataka Festival is known as Thet Mahachat (Thai : เทศน์มหาชาติ), from Maha Jati or "Great Birth", in Central Thailand,. [14] It is also known in Isanas Bun Phawet (Bun Phra Wes), Bun Duan Sii ('Merit-making of the fourth month') or Thet Phawet in Isan. . The Thet Mahachat is very popular both in rural and urban communities in Thailand, often with dance and drama performances, as well as festive parades and processions through the towns. During this Buddhist festival the monks give a sermon about the entire text of the Vessantara Jataka, accompanied by rituals and cultural performances. Because of its central role in the Thet Mahachat or Boun Pha Vet celebrations, the Vessantara Jataka is an important part of the traditional folklore in many areas of the Southeast Asian region. The tale of Phra Malai has traditionally been recited as a preface to the Vessantara Jataka festival in Thailand and Laos. [15]
Whereas the Thet Mahachat is associated to the birth of Vessantara, in Thailand, the Phi Ta Khon is another festival traditionally ascribed to a story of the Vessantara Jataka in which the Buddha in one of his past lives as a prince made a long journey and was presumed dead. The celebrations on his return were so raucous as to wake the dead. [16]
Khamsing Srinawk's 1969 story Dark Glasses depicts the disappearance of a young girl lured to Bangkok, presumably to work as a prostitute, until she returns for the Vessantara festival, a ritual migration undertaken by the children of Northeastern Thailand. [17]
Vesak, also known as Buddha Jayanti, Buddha Purnima, Buddha Day, and Phật Đản, is a holiday traditionally observed by Buddhists in South Asia and Southeast Asia, as well as Tibet and Mongolia. It is the most important Buddhist festival. The festival commemorates the birth, enlightenment (Nibbāna), and passing (Parinirvāna) of Gautama Buddha in Theravada, Tibetan Buddhism and Navayana.
The Lao people are a Tai ethnic group native to Southeast Asia, who speak the Lao language of the Kra–Dai languages. They are the majority ethnic group of Laos, making up 53.2% of the total population. The majority of Lao people adhere to Theravada Buddhism. They are closely related to other Tai people, especially with the Isan people, who are also speakers of Lao language, native to neighboring Thailand.
The Jātaka are a voluminous body of literature native to India which mainly concern the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. Jataka stories, were depicted on the railings and torans of the stupas. According to Peter Skilling, this genre is "one of the oldest classes of Buddhist literature." Some of these works are also considered great works of literature in their own right.
Thai literature is the literature of the Thai people, almost exclusively written in the Thai language. Most of imaginative literary works in Thai, before the 19th century, were composed in poetry. Prose was reserved for historical records, chronicles, and legal documents. Consequently, the poetical forms in the Thai language are both numerous and highly developed. The corpus of Thailand's pre-modern poetic works is large. Thus, although many literary works were lost with the sack of Ayutthaya in 1767, Thailand still possesses a large number of epic poems or long poetic tales —some with original stories and some with stories drawn from foreign sources. There is thus a sharp contrast between the Thai literary tradition and that of other East Asian literary traditions, such as Chinese and Japanese, where long poetic tales are rare and epic poems are almost non-existent. The Thai classical literature exerted a considerable influence on the literature of neighboring countries in mainland Southeast Asia, especially Cambodia and Burma.
The Rocket Festival is a merit-making ceremony traditionally practiced by ethnic Lao people at the beginning of the wet season in various villages and municipalities in Northeastern Thailand and Laos. The festivities typically include music and dance performances, competitive processions of floats, dancers and musicians on the second day, and culminating on the third day with the competitive firing of homemade rockets. Local participants and sponsors take advantage of the occasion to enhance their social prestige, as is customary in traditional Buddhist folk festivals throughout Southeast Asia.
Phi Ta Khon is a festival held in Dan Sai, Loei province, Isan, Thailand. The events take place over three days sometime between March and July, the dates being selected annually by the town’s mediums.
Laos developed its culture and customs as the inland crossroads of trade and migration in Southeast Asia over millennia. As of 2012 Laos has a population of roughly 6.4 million spread over 236,800 km2, yielding one of the lowest population densities in Asia. Yet the country of Laos has an official count of over forty-seven ethnicities divided into 149 sub-groups and 80 different languages. The Lao Loum have throughout the country's history comprised the ethnic and linguistic majority. In Southeast Asia, traditional Lao culture is considered one of the Indic cultures.
'Phra Lak Phra Ram' is the national novel of the Lao people, and is the Lao adaptation of the Dasaratha Jataka, a story narrating one of the previous life of Buddha as a Bodhisatta named Rama. It was brought to Laos and other Southeast Asia by propagation of Buddhism. The story reached Laos much later than Cambodia and Thailand (Siam) and thus was affected by local adaptation.
Merit is a concept considered fundamental to Buddhist ethics. It is a beneficial and protective force which accumulates as a result of good deeds, acts, or thoughts. Merit-making is important to Buddhist practice: merit brings good and agreeable results, determines the quality of the next life and contributes to a person's growth towards enlightenment. In addition, merit is also shared with a deceased loved one, in order to help the deceased in their new existence. Despite modernization, merit-making remains essential in traditional Buddhist countries and has had a significant impact on the rural economies in these countries.
The Ananda Temple, located in Bagan, Myanmar is a Buddhist temple built in 1105 AD during the reign (1084–1112/13) of King Kyansittha of the Pagan Dynasty. The temple layout is cruciform with several terraces leading to a small pagoda at the top covered by an umbrella known as hti, which is the name of the umbrella or top ornament found in almost all pagodas in Myanmar. The Buddhist temple houses four standing Buddha statues, each one facing the cardinal direction of East, North, West and South. The temple is said to be an architectural wonder in a fusion of Mon and adopted Indian style of architecture. The impressive temple has also been titled the "Westminster Abbey of Burma". The temple has close similarity to the Pathothamya temple of the 10th–11th century, and is also known as “veritable museum of stones”.
Thai temple art and architecture is the art and architecture of Buddhist temples in Thailand. Temples are known as wats, from the Pāḷi vāṭa, meaning "enclosure". A temple has an enclosing wall that divides it from the secular world.
Wat Phra That Phanom is a Buddhist temple in the That Phanom District in the south of Nakhon Phanom Province, all within the Isan region of Thailand near the Lao border. According to local legend, the temple contains in the pagoda the Phra Uranghathat (พระอุรังคธาตุ)/Phra Ura (พระอุระ)/Buddha's breast bones. As such, it is one of the most important structures for Theravada Buddhists and the most important Buddhist site in the province, with an annual week-long festival being held in the town of That Phanom to honour the temple. These festival attract thousands of people who make pilgrimages to the shrine. In Thai folk Buddhism, Wat Phra That Phanom is a popular pilgrimage destination for those born in the year of the Monkey.
Māgha Pūjā is a Buddhist festival celebrated on the full moon day of the third lunar month in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Sri Lanka and on the full moon day of Tabaung in Myanmar. It is the second most important Buddhist festival after Vesak; it celebrates a gathering that was held between the Buddha and 1,250 of his first disciples, which, according to tradition, preceded the custom of periodic recitation of discipline by monks. On the day, Buddhists celebrate the creation of an ideal and exemplary community, which is why it is sometimes called Saṅgha Day, the Saṅgha referring to the Buddhist community, and for some Buddhist schools this is specifically the monastic community. In Thailand, the Pāli term Māgha-pūraṇamī is also used for the celebration, meaning 'to honor on the full moon of the third lunar month'. Finally, some authors referred to the day as the Buddhist All Saints Day.
The Vessantara Jātaka is one of the most popular jātakas of Theravada Buddhism. The Vessantara Jātaka tells the story of one of Gautama Buddha's past lives, about a very compassionate and generous prince, Vessantara, who gives away everything he owns, including his children, thereby displaying the virtue of perfect generosity. It is also known as the Great Birth Sermon.
Vasundharā or Dharaṇī is a chthonic goddess from Buddhist mythology of Theravada in Southeast Asia. Similar earth deities include Pṛthivī, Kṣiti, and Dharaṇī, Vasudhara bodhisattva in Vajrayana and Bhoomi devi and Prithvi in hinduism.
Thai folklore is a diverse set of mythology and traditional beliefs held by the Thai people. Most Thai folklore has a regional background for it originated in rural Thailand. With the passing of time, and through the influence of the media, large parts of Thai folklore have become interwoven with the wider popular Thai culture.
The people of Laos have a rich literary tradition dating back at least six hundred years, with the oral and storytelling traditions of its peoples dating back much earlier. Lao literature refers to the written productions of Laotian peoples, its émigrés, and to Lao-language works. In Laos today there are over forty-seven recognized ethnic groups, with the Lao Loum comprising the majority group. Lao is officially recognized as the national language, but owing to the ethnic diversity of the country the literature of Laos can generally be grouped according to four ethnolinguistic families: Lao-Tai (Tai-Kadai); Mon-Khmer (Austroasiatic); Hmong-Mien (Miao-Yao), and Sino-Tibetan. As an inland crossroads of Southeast Asia the political history of Laos has been complicated by frequent warfare and colonial conquests by European and regional rivals.
Sang Sinxay is a Lao epic poem written by Pang Kham. It tells the story of the hero Sinxay (ສິນໄຊ) who goes on a quest to rescue his aunt Soumountha (ສູມຸນທາ) who was abducted by the demon Nyak Koumphan (ຍັກກູມພັນ). The poem is believed to have been written sometime between the mid-16th and the end of the 17th century in the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang. Sang Sinxay is considered one of the three masterpieces of Lao literature. The poem is popular in Laos and in the Isan region of Thailand, where its scenes are also depicted on numerous temples.
Sādhu or Sathu is a Pali word of Sanskrit origin which is used as a formula of approbation in both religious and secular contexts in Southeast Asia. It is a kind of Buddhist Amen, similar also to the Svāhā used as a denouement at the end of a mantra in Vedic religions which also served as a form of salutation. Though it is an "untranslatable phrase", it can be variously translated as "amen", "good", "yes" "thank you", "I have received", "well done", "be it so" or "all shall be well".