Asalha Puja

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Asalha Puja, also known as Asanha Puja and Dhamma Day, is a Theravada Buddhist festival which celebrates the founding of the sangha (the community of Buddhist monks) after the Buddha's first sermon in the deer park at Benares. It is the day before the Vassa or Rains Retreat begins, and takes place on the full moon of the 8th lunar month of the old Indian calendar (usually in July by the standard Western calendar). It is a national holiday in Thailand.

An important activity which takes place on this day is to chant the scriptures telling of this event, called Dhamma Cakka Sutta or the Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Truth, in the original Pali language. Donations are also given to monks and temples.

This day commemorates the Buddha’s first teaching, his first sermon in the Deer Park in Benares to the five monks who had been his companions in the past. This first teaching was revolutionary and resulted in the instant enlightenment of Kondanna, who was renamed Annatakondanna by the Buddha (meaning Kondanna who has seen).

See also Buddhism

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