Saga Dawa is here. Wondering what is this? Saga Dawa is a festival of celebration in Sikkim and other areas. While Saga means “the fourth”, Dawa refers to “month” in Tibetan. A month-long festival, which revolves around the birth of Sakyamuni. He attained Nirvana (enlightenment) and stepped into Parinirvana (death).
It is at Sikkim, that this festival is celebrated in a slightly different format. In Sikkim, it is celebrated with masked dances clubbed with sober hues. This celebration specially belongs to the Mahayana Buddhists and is meant for observing religious rites. The Mahayana Buddhists gather in temples and pay huge respect to pay due respect to the Lord. They also offer milk, which is considered as god-gifted. It is also celebrated in Tibet.
The day holds special importance as Tibetans are inclined towards spreading kindness, stop killing animals and eating meats, etc. There are monks doing spiritual chants, indulging in different religious activities to celebrate the occasion.
What’s more interesting is that this festival is also celebrated in China. It is popularly known as “Qiong ren Jie”. This translates into making the day for the poor by the magic of generosity. This is the most sacred day of the year in Tibetan Buddhism, commemorating the birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana (death) of the Buddha.
The common thought on this festival is that negative and positive actions are manifold multiplied by 100 million as a result. People gather at Tara Mandala, to circumambulate the Tara Temple in a procession with our newly received copy of the 108-volume Kangyur.
