The Significance of Monlam Chenmo

Monlam Chenmo  (The Great Prayer Festival) is a two-week period during which Lord Buddha performed various miracles.

According to the Sutra of the Wise and Foolish, six great Hindu teachers, representing the six great schools of Hinduism, challenged Shakyamuni Buddha to a competition of miracles.

Typically the Buddha purposely avoided displays of powers because people are easily interested in mundane powers instead of practicing Dharma.

However, through his clairovoyance, he understood they wouldn’t be subdued unless he performed the miracles, so he outdid them for 15 days, and the six scholars converted to Buddhism.

The Great Prayer Festival was established in Tibet in 1409 by Lama Tsongkhapa to commemorate Shakyamuni Buddha’s performance of miracles at Shravasti.

The main purpose of the Great Prayer Festival is to pray for the long life of all the holy Gurus of all traditions, for the survival and spreading of the dharma in the minds of all sentient beings, and for world peace.

The prayer is for the good of all beings, human beings, and the whole animal kingdom throughout the world.

The belief is that the Buddhism of Shakyamuni Buddha has passed its peak, and is gradually declining. But the Great Prayer Festival will shorten this period of decline and prevent the latter end of it, when human beings would otherwise live to be only ten years old.

The first prayer was held in Jokhang, the central cathedral in Lhasa in 1409 by Lama Tsongkhapa.  He invited all the people of Tibet to a two-week-long festival of prayer, auspicious ritual, teachings, and celebrations, from the first new moon until the full moon of the Lunar New Year. Many hundreds of thousands, perhaps more than a million came from near and far.

It is said that during that first Great Prayer Festival in 1409, all the people gathered in Lhasa themselves beheld similar visions solidly present in space, with heavenly hosts of Buddhas and divine beings filling the sky.

For the whole two weeks, the routine business of the city was suspended. Everyone got into their most religious mood and spent the whole time as if on a spiritual retreat, praying, studying, making offerings, teaching and learning, debating meaningful philosophical topics, and celebrating in ways both solemn and merry.

Every year Monlam Chenmo is held at Bodhgaya which is usually preceded by His Holiness the Dalai Lama or His Holiness the Karmapa.

In Bhutan, His Holiness the Je Khenpo regularly conducts Monlam Chenmo rotating within the Dzongkhangs (district).

Buddhist Flag

Bhutan a Buddhist country rarely uses Buddhist flag. It is due to late introduction of Buddhist flag to the world. People of Bhutan were not familiar with this important flag. Being a Buddhist country the flag need to be hoisted as it is directly related to Buddhism and its founder the Great lord Buddha.

Note that the flag that dole all over the country are not Buddhist flag. These are Mani, Dolma, Lungta and lhadhar flags.

The Buddhist Flag was invented in 1952 at the World's Second Buddhists' Fellowship Conference, which was held in Japan. Bhutan couldn't attend the conference. The flag was invented to symbolize the special features of Buddhism.

Its six colors were taken from the rays, which radiated from the Holy Body of the Buddha immediately after he attained enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree at Buddhagaya in India.

The six colors are:

1. Blue: signifying the concept of loving kindness and peace in Buddhism.

2. Yellow: signifying the Middle Path, that is, the complete absence of form and emptiness. A mind free from greed, anger and ignorance.

3. Red: signifying achievement, wisdom, virtue, fortune and dignity.

4. White: signifying purity, emancipation that the Dharma will always exist regardless of time or space.

5. Orange: The essence of Buddhism, which is full of wisdom, strength and dignity.

6. The combination of these five colors symbolizes that it is the one and only Truth.

The horizontal bars signify peace and harmony between all races through out the world while the vertical bars represent eternal peace within the world.

In simple terms, the Buddhist Flag implies that there is no discrimination of races, nationality, areas or skin color; that every living being possess the Buddha Nature and all have the potential to become a Buddha.

Please make small Buddhist flag and place it at your alter. I have brought one from Saravatu (UP), a place where Buddha stayed for 25 years and placed at me alter.