Buddhists observed the Fullmoon of Waso, also known as Dhammacakka Day, at pagodas in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday, offering Waso robes and flowers, taking meditation, making donations and receiving Precepts from Members of the Sangha.
A ceremony to offer Waso golden lotus robes was also held at the Uppatasanti Pagoda in the morning, attracting pilgrims, donors, merit-doers and fast keepers in Nay Pyi Taw and its nearby townships and villages.
Similarly, the Thatta Thattaha Maha Bodhi Pagoda in Ottarathiri Township, and the Datusaya Pagoda and the Maha Muni Buddha Image in its Pagoda compound in Zabuthiri Township were also crowded with visitors.
The Koe Khan Gyi Pagoda and the Loka Marazein Pagoda in Pyinmana Township also held Waso golden lotus robe offering ceremonies in the morning and were crowded with pilgrims, donors, merit-doers and fast keepers from various places. In the evening, the Uppatasanti Pagoda held a 9,000 oil lamp festival, and was crowded with visitors. In the auspicious Waso-Dhammacakka Day, chanting groups recited the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta.
The Fullmoon of Waso associates with the four great noble and significant events related to the precious life of the Omniscient Gotama Buddha.
On that holy day, the Buddha-to-be (the Gotama Buddha) took pregnancy in the womb of Queen Maya, wife of his Majesty Suddhodana of Kapilavatthu Kingdom, and also on that holy day at the age of 29, the Buddha-to-be renounced the world, and after having full attainment of the Buddhahood, the Gotama Buddha preached His first great sermon, Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta to His five disciples, in which He explained the Four Noble Truths and the Noble-Eightfold Path, on the Fullmoon of Waso.
All five disciples received ordination and formed the first nucleus of the holy brotherhood of disciples known as the Sangha.
And also, on the Fullmoon of Waso, the Omniscient Buddha performed the great miracle called the Twin Miracle. The reason for this was to dispel the wrong views of heretics and to prove that He possessed the attributes of a Buddha. — Han Lin Naing
(Translated by Kyaw Zin Tun)
