Saga Dawa Festival – Introduction, Significance, Characteristics
Tibet Local Time:18:15:43 GMT+8
Lhasa Weather
tibet tour logo,professional tibet tour operator

Office Hour: 09:00am - 06:00pm, (GMT+8)

Call our professional Tibet tour advisors

+86-23-86915020

Home > Tibet Guide > Tibet Festival

Saga Dawa Festival – Introduction, Significance, Characteristics

Update: Feb. 6th, 2013

Weisang in Saga Dawa Festival

Brief Introduction of Saga Dawa Festival

The day of April 15th in Tibetan Calendar is a traditional festival of Tibetan Buddhism. This traditional festival is named Saga Dawa Festival in Tibetan Language. For Tibetan Buddhism believers, Tibetan Saga Dawa Festival is a very special and holy day. It is closely related with three events in Buddha's life. That's birth, becoming Buddha and Parinirvana. It is an auspicious day to celebrate these three events. The April in Tibetan Calendar is named Saga Dawa Festival. According to legends, the Sakyamuni was born in the month of Saga Dawa Festival in Iron Monkey Year in Tibetan Calendar, became Buddha on the fifteenth day of the month of Saga Dawa Festival in Wooden Horse Year and passed away on the fifteenth day of the month of Saga Dawa Festival in Iron Dragon Year. Hence, Tibetans regard April as the month to chant scriptures for the birth, becoming Buddha and passing away of Sakyamuni. Tibetans also regard April as a lucky and auspicious month. During Saga Dawa Festival, both large and small monasteries in Tibet will hold various religious activities to commemorate these events of Sakyamuni. As time passed, these religious activities held in Saga Dawa Festival gradually changed to circumambulation in large scale. Consequently, if you have Tibet tour in the period of Saga Dawa Festival, you will have the opportunity to enjoy the wonderful religious atmosphere in each monastery.

Significance of Saga Dawa Festival

There are two different ideas about the significance of Saga Dawa Festival. The first one thinks that Saga Dawa Festival is to commemorate the day when Sakyamuni became Buddha. The other idea thinks that the day of Saga Dawa Festival is the day when Princess Wencheng reached Lhasa. On the day of Saga Dawa Festival, each district of Tibet will hold religious commemorative activity. In Saga Dawa Festival, Tibetans in Yunnan Province will worship the Darmo Mountain in Weixi County. In addition, they will hold a "Zhuangela" – the worshipping ceremony.

Characteristics of Saga Dawa Festival

To show mercy is the most special characteristics of Saga Dawa Festival. In this special festival, you will see various believers are prostrating on streets of Lhasa. Some of these believers may just want to accumulate merits, and some of them want to complete wishes in their hearts.

On the day of April 15th in Tibetan Calendar, the activities of showing merits will reach climax. Before dawn, there are Tibetans giving alms. On the day of Saga Dawa Festival, Tibetans would like to give alms to the people who are begging on street, regardless they are monks or beggars. Hence, there are some poor will beg in Saga Dawa Festival. Consequently, the Saga Dawa Festival is also named The Poor's Festival.

In general, Tibetans who prefer yak meat at common time will eat vegetables on April 8th and April 15th in Tibetan Calendar. On these days of Saga Dawa Festival, they will not do any bad things because Tibetans think that they will be seriously punished if they do any bad things in this period.

Share |
Quick Links:
Master Card VISA American Express Paypal Bank of China
Copyright 2011 | Tibet Tour Dot Com | All rights reserved. See our Privacy Policy, User Agreement