Celebrating the Vesak day festival in Thailand

The Day of Vesak, or Visakha Puja, is the celebration, the birth enlightenment and passing away of the Lord Buddha. It falls on the full moon day of the sixth lunar month of Vesak, which falls in May 8 this year. About 2,000 Buddhist leaders from all over the world have joined an International Buddhist Conference on the United Nations Day of Vesak in Thailand. The Day of Vesak was first celebrated during the Sukhothai period. An extraordinary aspect of the occasion is that the three incidents took place on the same day but different years.

The General Assembly of the United Nations took into consideration the fact that Buddhism is one of the world’s oldest religions. The Buddha taught mutual loving-kindness and forbearance for the sake of peace and happiness in society. Buddha attained enlightenment at the age of 35 and passed away at the age of 80. He spent 45 years propagating his principle of freedom from suffering. This still continues to make, a significant contribution to human spirituality, and therefore as a consequence, sixteen Buddhist countries jointly agreed to organize activities on the Day of Vesak at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, U.S.A. from 2000 onwards. In this way Buddhism began to make its way into Thailand. Buddhism gained wide acceptance because of its emphasis on tolerance and individual initiative, which complemented the Thais’ cherished sense of inner freedom.

At present, Thailand is the location of the headquarters of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, an international Buddhist organization which promotes coordination and cooperation to enhance Buddhism throughout the world. There are currently around 32,700 Buddhist monasteries and more than 350,000 monks across the country.