Festivals of Visāka 2025
Visakha is the 6th Month of the Thai-Lao Lunar calendar or the 8th Month of the Lanna system and is one of the busiest monthes in terms of the number of festivals that occur during this time around Thailand. For this short article I would like to focus on three festivals in particular that are celebrated in Central Thailand and will quote extracts of the Buddha’s life story from the book “The Life of the Buddha: According to Thai Temple Paintings” (1957) by Kurt Leidecker and Somdet Phra Vajirayanavom, third abbot of Wat Bowon and 13th Supreme Patriarch of the Ratanakosin period. Each section is written by different important monks of that era and I will give their names accordingly.
The festivals I will focus on this year are the Royal Ploughing ceremony, Visakha Puja and Attami Puja. These are by no means the only festivals and the information will be brief, with the intention to expand and explain more in separate posts in coming years.
The Royal Ploughing Ceremony
The Royal Ploughing Ceremony will take place at the Sanam Luang, royal field in front of the Grand Palace in Bangkok on Friday the 9th May 2025. The tradition is very ancient and is an important event in the 12 Royal Festivals as well as a pivotal moment in both the Ramakien and in the life of the Buddha which I will quote below:
Picture from Wat Samphandhawongse (Wat Koh) Bangkok, circa 1870 A.D.
Prince Siddhattha’s Shadow Does Not Move
“Here an event is illustrated which occurred when Prince Siddhattha was seven years old. It took place at the annual plowing festival.
King Suddhodana had a well-appointed tent erected in a little enclosure under a spreading rose-apple tree. He went off to conduct the ceremony and even the servants absented themselves in order to get a glimpse of the festivities. Thus left alone the young Prince experienced for the first time a strange delight and peace of mind as he sat cross-legged and went into deep trance while controlling his breath. Such was the depth of his beatitude which was a foreboding of his eventual Enlightenment that a strange phenomenon took place.
The time was way past noon, in fact, the sinking sun already cast long shadows. Yet the shadow under the rose-apple tree remained fixed as if the sun were directly overhead.
This the attendants noticed as they returned from the ceremony. They forthwith told the King who returned immediately and interpreted the phenomenon as a sign of the exalted nature of the Prince’s destiny and raised his hands in salutation.”
Phra Prasiddhi Viriyagun
Wat Dusitaram, Thonburi.
Visakha Puja
Visakha Puja Day will take place across the majority of Buddhist communities on Sunday the 11th May 2025. The tradition is that the full moon of the month of Visakha marks the birth, enlightenment and the death of the Lord Buddha. There are a variety of different activities, but the most common including making offerings to monks, visiting temples and circumambulating holy places holding lotus flowers, candles and incense. Visakha (ไพศากขย) is also mentioned as one of the 12 Royal Festivals in the Palace Law section of the Three Seals Law although there are no details as to what the ceremony looked like it does suggest it was celebrated at least from the early Ayutthaya period.
For this section I will quote a small part of the life of the Buddha on the moment of “Calling the Earth to Witness:”
Wat Bang Yi Khan, Bangkok, early to mid 19th Century.
“…When the all-powerful Mara began to notice that Gotama was slipping away from his domination, he was advancing on him with his army, chariots, horses, elephants and all sorts of weapons, challenging Gotama on his throne. Then Gotama gathered up all of the ten virtues of his previous life, remained undisturbed and resolved to call the earth to witness his purity. He thus threw his virtues, as it were, in the battle against Mara.
Exercising her supernatural powers in the service of the good Dhamma, the Goddess of the Earth, in the shape of a woman, standing below the throne wrung out her hair, loosening a great flood which brought the army of Mara to nought before sunset. Henceforth Gotama was free from any disturbances. He exerted power of his mind until he attained Enlightenment and became the Buddha on the full moon night of Visakha day.”
Phra Thaksinvaranayaka
Wat Udomdhani, Nakorn Nayok
Attami Puja
Attami Puja (วันอัฏฐมีบูชา) is on the 8th waning moon, that is the following holy day (Wan Phra), a week after Visakha Puja and should fall on Monday the 19th May this year. This marks the cremation of the Buddha’s body and is not celebrated in every temple, though like Visakha Puja there is a specific chant for the event composed by King Mongkut (Rama IV). This chanting can be found in the standard yellow chanting book called Mon Pitee used across Thailand, for a romanized version look at the following website and scroll down to page 160: (https://suvacobhikkhu.wordpress.com/pali-chanting/).
Some specific temples also have a tradition of burning a model of the Buddha on this day as seen in the above photo from Wat Borommathat Tung Yang, Laplae District, Uttaradit Province or at Wat Mai Sukonthararam (วัดใหม่สุคนธาราม) in Nakhon Pathom.
From the Buddhai Sawan Throne Hall of the National Museum in Bangkok.
Kassapa at the Buddha’s Pyre
“On the eighth day of the waning moon of the sixth month, or seven days after the Buddha’s Parinibbana, the King of the Mallas of Kusinara, together with his subjects, brought the Buddha’s body to a shrine called Makutabandhana where the cremation was to take place.
That day Phra Maha Kassapa or Kassapa the Great came and brought along 500 disciples from Pava city… The monks were perplexed, the Arhants speculated about the impermanence of the human body, but those who were not enlightened at all cried out with grief. Kassapa calmed them all on the way and when they arrived at the cremation site he went clockwise around the coffin three times, made his obeisance and pondered about his gratitude and faithfulness to the Buddha.
He swore that if his homage were acceptable the Buddha’s feet should come out of the coffin as a sign. No sooner had he finished when the Buddha’s feet came through the golden coffin. Kassapa then asked the Buddha’s pardon and the feet were withdrawn. The funeral pyre was lit and burned for several days.”
Phra Maha Phisit Suchitto
Wat Prayurawongse, Thonburi
