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Nirvana Day
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| Parinirvana Day | |
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| Also called | Nirvana Day |
| Observed by | Buddhists |
| Significance | Day when the Buddha is said to have achieved Parinirvana, or complete Nirvana, upon the death of his physical body |
| Date | 8 February or 15 February |
| Frequency | annual |
| Part of a series on |
| Buddhism |
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Parinirvana Day, or Nirvana Day is a Mahayana Buddhist holiday celebrated in East Asia. By some it is celebrated on 8 February,[citation needed] but by most on the 15 February.[citation needed] In Bhutan, it is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the fourth month of the Bhutanese calendar. It celebrates the day when the Buddha is said to have achieved Parinirvana, or complete Nirvana, upon the death of his physical body.[1]
Passages from the recitations of Nibbana Sutta or Nirvana Sutra describing the Buddha's last days of life are often read on Parinirvana Day. Other observances include meditation and visits to Buddhist temples and monasteries. Also, the day is a time to think about one's own future death and on the deaths of loved ones. This thought process reflects the Buddhist teachings on impermanence.
Some Western Buddhist groups also celebrate Parinirvana Day.
In Buddhist Litrature[edit]
The parinirvana of the Buddha is described in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta. Because of its attention to detail, this Theravada sutta, though first committed to writing hundreds of years after his death, has been resorted to as the principal source of reference in most standard studies of the Buddha's life.[2]
Location of Maha Parinirvana[edit]
It has been suggested by Waddell that the site of the death and parinirvana of Gautama Buddha was in the region of Rampurva:
"I believe that Kusīnagara, where the Buddha died may be ultimately found to the North of Bettiah, and in the line of the Aśōka pillars which lead hither from Patna (Pāțaliputra)" in Bihar.[3]
It still awaits proper archaeological excavation.
References[edit]
- ↑ BBC Holiday Page
- ↑ Buddhism: Critical Concepts in Religious Studies, Paul Williams, Published by Taylor & Francis, 2005. p. 190
- ↑ "A Tibetan Guide-book to the Lost Sites of the Buddha's Birth and Death", L. A. Waddell. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1896, p. 279.
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