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The tourist season started in Bodhgaya on Sunday with the robe offering ceremony organised by Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee (BTMC).
The annual events will continue till February 7 next year. Around 500 monks from different Buddhist countries like Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and also from different states of India took part in the robe offering ceremony that was organised under the Bodhi tree on the campus of Mahabodhi Mahavihara on Sunday morning.
BTMC secretary Nangzey Dorjee welcomed the monks on the Mahavihara campus.
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Mahavihara chief monk Bhikkhu Chalinda said: “After the three-month rainy retreat (varshawaas) of monks, devotees offer robe (civara) and other items for daily use to the priests.
This year, the rainy retreat ended on October 8. The robe offering ceremony will be organised at monasteries of different Buddhist countries in Bodhgaya at least for a month now.”
Offering civara to the monks is a tradition in Buddhism. “It is believed that the monks spend three months in varshawaas from July to September. During this period, the monks remain indoors in their respective monasteries or other places meditating and organising prayers. After the varshawaas is over, they need new clothes (civara) and thus the robe offering ceremony is organised in the monasteries,” Chalinda said.
During the tourist season of 2014-15, at least 17 annual events of puja performances will be organised at the Mahabodhi Mahavihara. Some of the other important events of the forthcoming tourist season will be Kagyu Monlam and the Nyingma Monlam of the Kagyu and Nyingma sects of Tibetan Buddhism respectively, Tipitaka chanting and water land puja.
According to the schedule, issued with the joint signatures of Mahavihara chief monk Bhikkhu Chalinda and the BTMC secretary Nangzey Dorjee on August 19, the annual events would come to an end with the seven-day Manushri-Nama-Samgati prayers from February 1 to 7.
Every year, religious organisations of different countries like Japan, China, Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet organise the annual events at Mahabodhi Mahavihara in Bodhgaya. A large number of monks, nuns, devotees and tourists from Buddhist countries including, Japan, Thailand, Bhutan, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Tibet and China, take part in the annual peace prayers.
