The Encyclopedia of World Religions

68 S Buddhist festivals

became highly visible, especially after he won the Nobel Prize for peace in 1989. Among his bet ter known followers was the movie actor, Richard Gere. Some Tibetan monks established monaster ies and Buddhist schools in the United States. A good example is the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, founded by the Tibetan monk Chog yam Trungpa. The Tibetan monks saw the United States as an opportunity to teach the Buddhist DHARMA in a foreign land. Other Buddhist groups did, too. One of the most important of these was the school known as Zen ( see Z EN B UDDHISM ). It has attracted a large number of non-Asian followers in the United States. Indeed, it has broadly influenced American culture. American awareness of Zen dates from the World’s Parliament of Religion held in Chicago in 1893. Among the religious figures who attended the parliament was a Japanese Zen master, Shaku Soen. Later, the books of a lay follower of Soen, D. T. Suzuki, helped popularize Zen in the United States and around the world. In the 1950s Zen attracted the attention of the Beat poets. By the 1970s Americans of non-Asian descent had been certified as Zen masters. By the end of the cen tury Zen MEDITATION centers were common in many parts of the United States. Zen has become a feature of the American consciousness. Good examples are Robert Pirsig’s novel, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Mainte nance (1974) and a World-Wide-Web site hosted by America Online in 1996 called “Zen and the Internet.” Such titles show the extent to which Zen has fascinated Americans. These uses of the word “Zen,” however, have little or nothing to do with the practice of Buddhism. Further reading: James Wilson Coleman, The New Buddhism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001); Rick Fields, How the Swans Came to the Lake (Boulder, Colo: Shambhala, 1986); Lenore Friedman, Meetings with Remarkable Women (Boston: Shambhala, 1987); Richard Seager, Buddhism in America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999).

Buddhist festivals Festivals play a very impor tant role in the life of Buddhists. It is difficult, however, to generalize about them. The different schools—Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana— celebrate different festivals ( see M AHAYANA B UD DHISM , T HERAVADA B UDDHISM , and V AJRAYANA B UD DHISM ). So do different regions, such as Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand, all countries where Thera vada predominates. In most places Buddhists cel ebrate festivals according to a lunar calendar in which the months are defined by the phases of the moon. In Japan, however, Buddhists use the calen dar commonly used in the United States. Important festivals commemorate events in the life of the B UDDHA . Theravada Buddhists believe that the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and parin irvana (“ultimate NIRVANA ,” what non-Buddhists think of as his death) all occurred on the same day, a full-moon day that usually occurs in the month of May. Some Buddhists refer to it as Buddha Day. In Theravada countries this is a very important festival. Theravada Buddhists commonly celebrate this festival the way they celebrate most festivals: They give food to the monks and the poor, they dedicate themselves to the Five Precepts (instruc tions on how to live, similar to the T EN C OMMAND MENTS in J UDAISM and C HRISTIANITY ), they listen to DHARMA talks (sermons on Buddhist topics), and they walk in a devotional manner around STUPAS , monuments where Buddha relics are kept. Unlike Theravada Buddhists, other Buddhists celebrate the birth, enlightenment, and parinir vana of the Buddha Sakyamuni, as they call him, on different days. For example, Japanese Buddhists celebrate his birth on April 8, his enlightenment on December 8, and his parinirvana on the 15th of February or March (traditions vary). Particularly striking is the celebration of Sakyamuni’s birth. It is known in Japanese as Hanamatsuri, “flower festival.” Japanese Buddhists decorate altars pro fusely with flowers to recall the flowers in the grove where Sakyamuni was born. They also pour sweet tea on an image of the baby Buddha. Other Mahayana Buddhists pour tea on Buddha images, too. According to legend, the skies rained sweet tea at Sakyamuni’s birth.