Saga Dawa in Sikkim

Gangtok, Sikkim: Sikkim today celebrated Saga Dawa, the holiest day on the Buddhist calendar, with prayers in various monasteries across the hill state.

The festival falls on the full-moon day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar and is considered three-fold auspicious since it marks the birth, attainment of Nirvana and the death or Mahaparinirvana of the Buddha. The thrice-blessed celebrations is considered so holy that slaughter of animals and sale of meat is banned in the state for 15 days, starting from the beginning of the lunar month. The day being declared a state holiday, government offices and establishments remained closed.

Celebrations started with religious associations and people from various faiths and communities attending prayers at monasteries. This being a lho-na or a black lunar year, taken to be an inauspicious period, residents performed pujas to ward off evil and misfortunes. The most important of the pujas was held at Tsuklakhang, the royal chapel next to the palace compound here.

Rallies were taken out across the state, in which people walked down the streets with statues of the Buddha, colourful thanka scrolls and paintings depicting his life. In Gangtok, a procession was taken out from the Tsuklakhang monastery, and the residents joined the monks in the walk around the town and back.

Source: The Telegraph