Vessantara Jataka
| Vessantara Festival | |
|---|---|
| Also called | Boun Pha Vet (in Laos) Media Full Moon Poya (in Sri Lanka) Thet Mahachat (in Thailand) |
| Observed by | Thais, Lao, Sri Lankans, Cambodians and Burmese |
| Type | Buddhist |
| Significance | Commemorates the Vessantara Jataka |
| Date | Full moon day of the 12th lunar month |
| 2016 date | March 22 |
| 2017 date | March 12 |
| 2018 date | March 31 |
The Vessantara Jātaka (Burmese: ဝေဿန္တရာ ဇာတ်တော်, Wethandaya Zatdaw; Thai: มหาเวสสันดรชาดก, Maha Wetsandon Chadok) is one of the most popular apadānas of Theravada Buddhism. The Vessantara Jātaka tells the story of one of Gautama Buddha's past lives, about a compassionate prince, Vessantara, who gives away everything he owns, including his children, thereby displaying the virtue of perfect charity. It is also known as the Great Birth Sermon. The story has slight variations in other parts of Asia where the story is known as the Jinaputra Arthasiddhi sutra in Tibet and the prince known as "Prince Arthasiddhi" and in China it's known as Taizi Xudanuo jing where the prince is known as "Prince Sudana" (須大拏太子) and "Shudaina-taishi" in Japan.
The tale of Prince Vessantara is celebrated as an annual festival in Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.
When Gautama Buddha visited his father's kingdom for the first time after he achieved the supreme enlightenment, arrogant elders of the ruling dynasty did not pay him respect, since they were older than the former Prince Siddhartha. The Buddha miraculously appeared in the air above his relatives. His father was the first to bow down and admitted that this was his third time to pay respect to his own son. Members of the dynasty then bowed down and accepted the religion. Suddenly, rain clouds gathered and a red-drop rain appeared. This miracle led to his followers' asking, "What is this rain?" He then explained that this rain had appeared once before, during his last life before his present life. Then, he told them the story of his previous life as King Vessantara.
King Vessantara was the son of Sañjaya, king of Sivirattha, and was born in the capital city of Jatuttara as a bodhisattva.
His mother, according to tradition, was a princess who made great merit (Buddhism) and wished to become the mother of a future Bodhisattva who would be the next Buddha. After she died, the princess ascended to the Celestial Kingdom and became one of the god Indra's consorts. She lived happily until the day she had to be reborn again as a human. Indra gave her ten boons and one of them was 'Let me become the mother of Bodhisattva, who in his next life will achieve enlightenment'. She descended to the human world, was born to the court of a king, and later married to King Sañjaya.
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