On the full moon day of Kartik, i.e. Wednesday, lamps are lit throughout the day. The festival lasts from night to Saturday morning, and there is an equal crowd of people performing traditional songs and dances throughout the festival.
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A festival has begun at Namobuddha, a historical and tourist destination located in Namobuddha Municipality-11, on Tuesday evening. As part of the festival, Buddhists will light lamps at Namobuddha in remembrance of their ancestors from this evening.
On the full moon day of Kartik, i.e. Wednesday, lamps are lit throughout the day. As part of the festival, a fair is held from night to Saturday morning, and there is an equal crowd of people performing traditional songs and dances throughout the fair.
According to Lopsang Bajra Lama, the chairman of Namobuddha Guthi, lamps are lit throughout the fair in memory of 'ancestors'. According to the Lama, lighting lamps brings light to the ancestors throughout the year, so there has been a tradition of lighting lamps here every year. According to the Lama, lamps are lit for the salvation of ancestors and peace of the soul.
The day of Purnima is considered the day when 'Rajkumar', the symbol of peace, gave up his body in his previous birth and gave life to a tiger, so there is a special crowd on that day. According to legend, the land where Buddha gave up his life after being reborn in Lumbini, which is considered the place where Namobuddha was named after him with 'Namobuddhaya Namah'.
A large crowd of Buddhists has been gathering every year to worship and light lamps at the Chaitya where the skeleton of the prince of the Dwaparyuga was built and the place where he sacrificed his life. According to the temple management committee, about 50,000 people visit Namo Buddha every year at the fair.
The main Lama Guru Kanchha Lama of Namo Buddha says that especially the Tamang and Newar community devotees attend the fair. According to him, the three sons of King Maharath and Queen Satyavati of the then Panchaladesh (Panauti Kingdom) were hunting in the eastern Gandhaman Parbat (forest) while the younger prince was cutting his blood and flesh and feeding it to a hungry tigress and giving her life. Based on this belief, a big fair is held every Kartik Shukla Purnima.
It is said that the tiger Lakshmi who gave birth to five cubs and the five cubs are considered monks. According to the Lama Guru, after the prince saved the tiger and sacrificed himself, the queen spent the rest of her life serving the temple nearby. 'After that, the queen Shankheshwari has been known as Aji-Ajima,' said the Lama Guru. In the year 974, there is a record of a stupa (chaitya) being built by collecting bones on the top of the Gandhaman mountain. The mountain is at an altitude of eight thousand feet.
There is a statue carved on the mountain showing the prince cutting the tiger's flesh himself and feeding it. Apart from the fairs and festivals, there is always a large crowd of Buddhists from home and abroad at Namobuddha, said local Rakesh Lama. It is expected that participants from neighboring districts like Sindhupalchowk, Sindhuli, Ramechhap, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Dhading, Nuwakot, etc. will participate in the fair this year.
Currently, there are huge monasteries, temples, stupas, and chaityas at the place. A Buddhist school is also being run in the stupas.
