Tibet saw pious believers to celebrate this year's Buddha Descending Day on the widened circumambulation path to the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa on Nov. 24.
Tamdrin, a cleaner in charge of the area of the Jokhang Temple square and the circumambulation path to it, said it's easier for her to clean the square and the path since the booths and stalls used to be there for business with tourists had been removed to the New Barkor Street Market and the circumambulation path seemed to be wider and smoother than before.
Sept. 22 in the Tibetan Calendar is regarded as the Buddha Descending Day, which falls on Nov. 24 this year. According to Tibetan custom, believers will go to the Jokhang Temple or Potala Palace, burning the aromatic plants to whorship Buddha and pray for a peaceful and happy year.
"The smoke of the burning aromatic plants is so strong today that I couldn't even open my eyes without tearing. I need to clean up the Zanba powder and pine and cypress branches that people carelessly drop on the ground," Tamdrin described her job.
According to Tibetan Buddhism, Spet. 22 of Tibetan Buddhism is the day that Buddha Shakyamuni descended from Heaven to the human world. Whereas, another saying also goes that it is the day Buddha Shakyamuni returned from Heaven after preaching to his mother their out of filial piety at the age of seven.
Early on this year's Buddha Descending Day, a religious throng started their circumambulation around the Jokhang Temple where the statue of Shakyamuni Buddha the same size as the Buddha's 12-year-old body was consecrated.
The pilgrimage path is dotted with many furnaces for believers to burn the aromatic plants.
"Six yuan for one bag of the plant. Oh, you don't have the change. Then five yuan. It's okay," Lhamo the vendor said while handing in the sorted plants to the pilgrims. She also provided Zanba and water to the people for free.
The queue of the pilgrims waiting to worship the Buddha's statue in the Jokhang Temple was as long as over 500 meters. The religious followers in the queue looked very patient and chanted scriptures while waiting. They believed that circumambulation and chanting sutra on this special day could bring forth greater blessings.
Lhamo sells Khadas and the butter for the butter-lamps in monasteries for pilgrims to pay homage to the Jokhang Temple. Every day she would melt the butter and store it in vacuum flasks so that when people buy the butter they can put it into the butter-lamps directly.
The Buddha Descending Day is celebrated by Tibetans as one of the four major festivals of Shakyamuni along with the Monlam Prayer Festival, the Sakadawa Festival (in honor of Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and death) and the Worshipping Holy Hills Festival.
With government's efforts, religious festivals and rites have been respected and protected in Tibet through these years and the freedom of religious belief has been guaranteed well.
.jpg "Tibetan Local Travel Agency")
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