Showing posts with label Buddha's birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Buddha's birthday. Show all posts

May 29 – Vesak in Indonesia and India

(Varying Dates)

 Posted on May 29, 2018

There are many, many different religions practiced in the world - and many different versions of each of the major religions.



(Of course, a lot of people in the world practice no religion at all.)

Today I will discuss Vesak, an important holiday for many Buddhists, a holiday equivalent to Buddha's birthday celebration. But I will talk about this Buddhist holiday in two nations in which Buddhism is a minority:

  • Indonesia, in Southeast Asia, is 67% Muslim and less than one percent Buddhist. 
  • India, the birthplace of the Buddha and therefore the birthplace of Buddhism, is about 80% Hindu and - again - less than one percent Buddhist.

 Why Indonesia and India, places that are dominated by other religions?

 Because Vesak is celebrated on different dates in different nations and Buddhist communities. This year, many Vesak celebrations occur in April - but they are held in late May in Indonesia and India.

 In India, Vesak is often celebrated by wearing white robes, visiting temples, listening to monks give talks or recite ancient stories, or pouring water over a statue of the Buddha.



In Indonesia, Vesak is celebrated with gatherings of monks who repeat mantras and meditate together. There is one ritual in which monks ask for charity. The best part of the day is the night - lol - when large lanterns are lit up and sent up into the sky!



Indonesia and India are both developing Asian nations, each with great potential and many resources, but each with problems as well. One of India's big resources is LOTS of people, and one of India's big problems is LOTS of people. Here are some comparison numbers:

 India population: 1.3 billion
Indonesia population: 260 million

 India population density: almost 400 people per square km
Indonesia population density: almost 140 people per square km

 India Gross Domestic Product (Purchasing Power Parity): $10.4 trillion
Indonesia Gross Domestic Product (Purchasing Power Parity): $3.5 trillion

 India GDP per capita (per person): almost $8,000
Indonesia GDP per capita: around $13,000

 So...India's economy is much larger, but since it's population is much, much larger, Indonesians are more prosperous on average.

 Here are some beautiful things to see in these two nations:

 Lake Tiga Warna on Flores Island, Indonesia:

This is a weird place with three lakes of different colors!

Gurudongmar Lake in India:
This is one of the highest lakes in the world.

Green Canyon Pangandaran in Java, Indonesia:

Marble Rocks Canyon - Jabalpur, India:

Mount Bromo - an active volcano - in Indonesia:


 Mount Shivling in India's Himalayas:

Ulun Danu Beratan Temple, in Bali, Indonesia:


The Taj Majal in Agra, India:

Jakarta, capital of Indonesia:

Mumbai, largest city of India:

Prambanan, ruins of a Hindu temple complex in Indonesia:

Ellora ruins in India:



Also on this date:
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April 8, 2012 - Easter and Buddha Day



For Christians, today is Easter Sunday. Many people celebrate by going to church, having family gatherings, and eating together. But we also link the holiday with spring things like bunnies and chicks and eggs. Decorating eggs and having Easter egg hunts are two of my favorite Easter customs!

For more on Easter, check out this and this other post.

For Buddhists, today is Buddha Day.

April 8 is the traditional birthday of Gautama Buddha, the founder of the religion, who was thought to have lived in India from 563 B.C.E. to 483 B.C.E. (Actually, scholars have some evidence that he may have been born in May, rather than April, but since the date is uncertain, why not stick with tradition?)

Whenever it was, the Buddha was born Prince Siddhartha, the son of a king of people who lived on the border of present-day Nepal and India. The prince lived a very luxurious life, sheltered from disease and death, poverty and misery. However, when he was a young adult, Siddhartha set off to see more of the world and was amazed by the amount of suffering he saw. He wandered and observed and thought deeply about life and death and suffering. Eventually he began to teach that suffering was caused by human craving, and that nirvana (an end to suffering) can be achieved by right views, right speech, and right action. The Buddha taught an eightfold path of “right” things—in other words, how to best live life.


Buddhism spread from India to Central and Southeast Asia, China, Korea, Japan, and eventually worldwide. Today it is estimated that 350 million people practice Buddhism.

Also on this date:



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April 8, 2010

Hana Matsuri – Flower Festival – Japan

This holiday celebrates the birthday of Buddha. Those who visit a shrine on this day bring offerings of fresh flowers (cherry blossoms), so this is why it is called a flower festival.

Customs vary widely from place to place. In many towns, people wear kimonos and line up on the decorated streets to watch parades with floats. One float is always a white elephant that carries a small image of a baby Buddha. (There are no elephants in Japan, but there were in India, where Buddha spent most of his life.)

Some children pour tea on the baby statue to represent the story that it rained tea on the day that Buddha was born.

Check out some of the colorful pictures of this festival at the Muza-Chan site.

This is the traditional date on which Japanese people celebrate Buddha's birthday. In actual fact, Prince Siddhartha Gautama (who became “the Buddha”) was surely not born on April 8, 566 B.C. (In similar fashion, December 25, 1 A.D., was probably not the actual birth date of Jesus of Nazareth.) The rest of East Asia uses the Chinese calendar to set the date for his birthday, with this year the date falling on May 21.

Color a picture of some Japanese children in their traditional kimonos. Some kids will wear these kinds of robes to the festival today! Or how about coloring this picture of cherry blossoms?

For instructions on making a traditional Japanese painting of cherry blossoms, look at The Crafty Classroom. You can substitute materials you have on hand for a less authentic, but still lovely, painting.


Here is a puzzle that shows the various islands of Japan.

There are a million things to read and do and explore on Kids Web Japan.
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