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 God
:
Lord Buddha
Symbolises
:
Descent of Lord Buddha from the heaven
Religion
:
Buddhism
Lhabab Dhuechen : This festival symbolises the Descent
of Buddha from the heaven of the thirty three gods after visiting his
mother.
Dhuechen means festivals, Lha means heaven and Bab
means descent.
According to legend, Queen Maha Maya, the mother of Lord Buddha, did
not live long, took rebirth in
Trayastrimsa or the heaven of the thirty Gods. After attaining
Enlightenment, Lord Buddha through spiritual powers came to know about
the whereabouts of his mother and at the age of forty one ascended to
heavens
alongwith thousands of his followers.
Lord Buddha stayed in heaven for three months during which he devered
sermons to his mother and other celestial beings. Lord Buddha had left
behind on earth one of his disciples,
Maugalyayana, as his representative.
This disciple and other devotees of the Lord could not bear the long
separation and longed to hear his
preachins. Maugalyayana, who possessed miraculous powers,
was exhorted to go up to the heaven to request the Lord to return back
to the earth.
The gods were not willing to let Lord Buddha return to earth but
Maugalyanana suggested that as the earthly beings did not have the
powers to visit heaven, the
celelstial beings could come to the earth to attend his
preachings.
Lord Buddha finally relented and descended to the earth at a place called
sankasya along a triple ladder that was prepared especially for the
occasion by
Viswakarma, the God of Machines.
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