Bhaktapur, January 12: This year, two thousand monks will be given alms as part of the ‘Samyak Dan Parba’, a great charity event that has been celebrated every year on Magh 1 since 350 years ago, i.e. before Nepal Sambat 787.
At a press conference organized by the Samyak Mahadan Management Support Committee on Saturday, committee chairman Ganesh Bajracharya informed that preparations are underway to make a Mahadan to monks during the Samyak Mahadan festival as per Buddhist tradition to be held on the ground floor of the Jayakirti Mahavihara (Yayubahi) premises in Bhaktapur Municipality-1. He said that the five Deepakan Buddha statues will be installed in the local Thathubahi and all the monks of Shakya and Bajracharya who have attained Buddha knowledge will be given various dishes including prasad, rice and will be celebrated by performing puja and circumambulating the five Deepakans.
He said that the inscription mentions that Jayaratna Bajracharya, a member of the famous Chatu Brahma Mahavihara located next to the Bhaktapur Durbar Square, established this festival in the name of his late father Jayadeva Bajracharya in Nepal Sambat 787 by inviting Dipankar Buddha and other members of the Vihara Sangha and donating proper food. At that time, the Jayakirti Mahavihara was in a very dilapidated condition, so it is mentioned in history that Jayaratna Bajracharya renovated the Vihara in Nepal Sambat 794 and performed the proper Mahadan in the same year in the presence of King Jayajitamitra Malla.
According to the committee’s advisor Saptachandra Bajracharya, it is customary to provide food and grain dakshina to Buddhist monks who have been initiated and are living in Buddhist monasteries established traditionally during Samyak Dan. Since it is the turn of Saptachandra Bajracharya and his family to celebrate Samyak Dan this year, Rajuman Bajracharya of the committee said that they have been residing at Jayakirti Mahavihar for a week and are busy arranging special types of puris, laddus and other materials required for the festival.
He said that preparations are being made accordingly, expecting that the number of Buddhists observing the festival and receiving Samyaka donations this year will be more than in previous years. During the Samyaka Mahadan, it is a tradition to first offer food to Hebaja Nairatma, the ancestral deity of the Chatubrahma Mahavihara Sangha, on the ground floor of the Jayakirti Mahavihara (Thatthubahi) premises. After that, food is offered to Larai Mool Dipankar, Bahache Dipankar, Bhaurabahi Dipankar, Yayubahi Dipankar and Kuthubahi Dipankar.
Similarly, there is a tradition of giving Samyaka donations to the four Samyaka Dyo (golden lamp idols), the Suvarna Chaitya, the Sthavir Aju, the original Guruju, the Gurujus, and the hundreds of Bajracharya, Buddhacharya, and members of the Shakya family seated in a row.
