2 comments

  • Niko

    July 11, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    Why they pouring the water over that statue? is it Buddha-hood? I also see he carried a small buddha.

  • Kyaemon

    July 12, 2011 at 7:35 am

    Niko,

    The following extracts from Wikipedia might be helpful to your query.

    Vesākha
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ves%C4%81kha

    “…Some temples also display a small image of the baby Buddha in front of the altar in a small basin filled with water and decorated with flowers, allowing devotees to pour water over the statue; it is symbolic of the cleansing of a practitioners bad karma, and to reenact the events following the Buddha’s birth, when devas and spirits made heavenly offerings to him.”

    About the “small statue he is carrying”

    The gilded statue at the back (the larger one) is the deva or nat/spirit/guardian angel. You must be referring the the smaller white marble Buddha statue in the foreground. It’s not carried by anyone. It’s there for people to pour water as a symbolic offering of cleansing water.

    Per astrology, there are 8 such corners for the 7 days of the week. Wednesday has an extra corner, one for Wednesday morning and one for Wednesday afternoon. People pour water according to the day they were born, to obtain blessings.

    They are traditions influenced by astrology. Actually, Buddha asked people to understand and practice his Dhamma teachings rather than worshiping him blindly.

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