Ganatantra Divasa and buddhist festival Saga Dawa
The Dawa Saga Festival is a special day for Buddhists.
Buddhist festival
It is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the fourth month according to the Tibetan calendar. Such a special day is actually every Purnima, or the full moon. This, however, is especially special.
It is said that on Dawa’s day, our merits resulting from the right – or the contrary – from the wrong – practices increase many times. Therefore, the point is to remember about the right motivation of your actions on this day, not to cause someone’s suffering and to express good wishes … See – Tibetan calendar.
For this reason, Nepalese Buddhists gather on this day around the great Boudanath stupa, which increases the power of good karma. Many of them – especially members of the Tamang, Sherpa and Tibetan caste – spend the day on performing at least 108 cortices – ritual laps around Boudanath or Swayambunath. Therefore, the only thing we managed to film on this day are the powerful and dense waves of human bodies moving under the sounds of ritual pujas held in nearby chapels and monasteries around the great Stupa with a direction consistent with the movement of the sun and constant speed.
National holiday
In addition, May 29 is also the national celebration of Nepal, Ganatantra Divasa or Republic Day. According to historical events, eleven years ago – when the monarchy officially came to an end – the fifteenth day of the month of the Jesth of the Nepali calendar Bikram sambat is now considered the anniversary of the establishment of Nepal as a republic.
However, as far as I have noticed, hardly any of our Nepalese neighbors are aware of this holiday – all friends of the region only mention the great Saga Dawa festival.
It should be mentioned at this point that among the average Nepalis – followers of one of the two main religious trends in the country – the current political state of the country as a republic is not very popular. Many of them have a lot of sentiment for the reign of the last king of Nepal, considering the three-year period of the monarchy as the most luminous in the history of the country. Although all the main stools in the Nepali government are now staffed by Maoists, and the country is called the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, most of the houses are dominated by the portrait of the last Raja.
The deep relationship that Nepalese people feel with their land and their history can be felt seeing them singing their hymn – see below.
