Opening the eyes of the Buddha

Publié le 11 février 2008 par Gaelle, Aisyah, Socheata... what else ?

Among the Buddhist traditions, one of them is about "spiritualizing" the Buddha statues, putting a spirit in it. For this, a ceremony is held during which they open his eyes. They were covered by wax beforehand, and the head was covered by a white cloth, to prevent them from "seeing"

The Buddhas of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday day-time. On the other side are Wednesday night-time and the rest of the days. In front of them are the alms bowls, for people to give money to the Buddha of their birth day. Mine is Tuesday ^^

After chanting, the monks will remove the cloth and the wax, cleaning the head and presenting a portant where are symbolized 3 lotus flowers with mirrors. Guess it has a connection with these eyes... At the end, new chanting and they give the holy rice, prepared by virgin girls.

undefined             It is usually held for every new statue of Buddha, but this very ceremony was especially big, with 8 brand new Buddha and abbots coming from far away.

        They had forgotten to tell me exactly what would happen. So I was kind of surprised to hear that it would actually occur mostly during the night. "Only" 2 hours of chanting saturday morning (but when you have to sit and listen for 2 hours, it can turn kind of loooong), and then the real ceremony was from 7pm to 1am, and then again at 4am.

       I joined the outdoor kitchen for some time, watching the rice preparation. After 4 hours of chanting in the day, I could not immerge in my thought or meditate any more, I needed to be a little... active ^^;

          And then, 3 hours of sleep, before opening the eyes for real and giving the rice to the statues. All in all, it was finished around 6am and we were back at Wat Suan Dok by 7.30. Way too early to go back home so I wandered in the city and got a new breakfast (I found my place to have my hot chocolate in the morning ^^ Pratu Chiang Mai Market power !)

Aimmy (17 y/o) and Aom (19 y/o), my two new friends, preparing the holy rice

Different style of chanting, 2 monks and 3 novices, and I almost cried from their voice...

Holy rice in the morning, ready to be giving to the Buddhas. It's cooked in coconut milk, with honey, sugar cane, peanuts... And we could eat it after the ceremony ^^

If you want to listen to only one vid, it's this one. The voice of the youngest novice is so beautiful...

Opening the eyes of the Buddha