Thousands throng temple to celebrate Wesak Day

The Star

Worshippers gathered at the Thai Buddhist Chetawan Temple as early as 6am on Wednesday (May 22) to celebrate Wesak Day.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00 The smell of joss sticks and burning incense greeted devotees at the Thai Buddhist Chetavan

00:09 Temple on Wednesday. Thousands gathered as early as 6 a.m. at the temple for Vesak Day.

00:15 They performed rituals and sought blessings by lighting candles fashioned as lotus flowers

00:20 and oil lamps, offering flowers and bathing statues of Buddha.

00:25 We served more people, a lot of people coming and then we do the Buddha bath and then blessing,

00:38 many many more.

00:39 Precession, we got precession early morning. We start from morning chanting 6.30, afterwards

00:46 on 11, we giving, I'm giving, it's called dana, dana, giving, evening chanting at 8 p.m.

00:56 After evening chanting, we do precession around the temple, yes, at 9 p.m.

01:04 Vesak is the most important festival in the Buddhist calendar. It marks the important

01:09 events, the birth, enlightenment and passing of the religion's founder, Siddhartha Gautama.

01:15 Vesak Day emphasizes the importance of Buddhist adherence, embracing their faith and living

01:20 true to their beliefs.

01:21 It's very beautiful, it's very peaceful here. We do come sometimes like once in a while.

01:29 So today, though there's a lot of people, but it's really peaceful. I really like the

01:33 way Buddhist is. It's a very interesting path to follow and I would like to teach my children

01:40 on this path, show them about the goodness of Buddha. That's why I bring them, it's actually

01:48 to expose them to Buddhism, who is Buddha and all that.

01:53 I usually went to Thai temple when I was in Thailand, so when I stay in KL, I just would

01:59 like to keep the routine. So yeah, I came here and I felt good every time that I make

02:05 merit, after I make merit, something like that.

02:08 Everything is very authentic here, actually, the ceremony and everything that they provided

02:12 here. So what you can find in Thailand is actually provided here as well, so not different

02:17 at all.

02:18 The reason that we came here is because it's recognized as a big Buddhist day. So we feel

02:24 like we want to keep this routine and feel blessed in this day.

02:27 I've been coming to this place for quite some time because I stayed in Section 14 and I

02:32 used to frequent this place every year. I'm a Hindu, but I'm a firm believer in all religions.

02:40 To me, all gods are the same. To me, I would like to follow the Buddhism style of being

02:45 peaceful, harmony and never do any harm to anybody. I always believe in this. Mankind

02:53 has to be like that. Let's treat everybody equal and also respect nature.

03:01 [Bell ringing]

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