Everyone, I mean EVERYONE loves Vesak in Sri Lanka. It’s free-food, free-cool drinks, free-ice cream, the free-fiesta (not the stores or malls though 😏) during this Holy celebration day each year in the month of May. Sri Lanka being such a cool country, we even get the Day Following Vesak Poya day as a holiday. How’s that? But what’s one of the best parts of Vesak in Sri Lanka? My favourite – The Vesak Lantern… The colorful, octagonal shaped, lit with a candle or sometimes with a bulb; Vesak Lanterns (Vesak Kuduwa in the Sinhala language).
The story about the Vesak Lanterns runs into various times and so many ideas, philosophies are involved in this. This blog post covers all you need to know about the Vesak Lanterns of Sri Lanka.
Let’s talk about Vesak Lanterns
Let’s break it down, one by one…
history of the vesak poya day
Vesak is related to Buddhism. This special day, called the Vesak Poya Day, commemorates (means recalls and respects) the Birth, Enlightenment, and the Passing Away of Gautama Buddha – the founder of Buddhism. This is not a Sri Lanka-only celebration though. South-Asian countries like Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia also celebrate Vesak festival, in their own styles. Even Thailand, Singapore, Korea, China has Vesak-like celebrations but that’s not on the exact day like in Sri Lanka.
Lighting of Oil lamps around the Bodhi tree used to be celebrated on this Poya day since ancient times. In fact, Mahavamsa (xxxii, 37) records King Dutugamunu lighting one thousand lamps in twelve sacred places in Anuradhapura back in the 2nd century B.C. Same with King Vasabha in the 1st century A.D. lighting one thousand oil lamps at the places such as Thuparama, Ruwanveli Maha Seya, and the Sri Maha Bodhi tree premises (Mahavamsa xxxvi, 80).
Today, this centuries-old practice has converted to a Festival of Lights. Still, almost every Buddhist lights the oil lamps either at their gardens, at the temples, making this a symbolic offering of light to the enlightened one – Lord Buddha.
Source: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/ kariyawasam/wheel402.html
what is a Vesak Lantern?
Okay, so this is a typical Vesak Lantern – called the Atapattama.
What?
Ata-Pattama. That means,
- Ata = Eight
- Pattama = Structure (figure)
It’s nice right? Made from a dried Bamboo Shell (trunk), knit tightly by threads, covered in colorful oil paper (cake paper), and decorated with frills hanging down, this structure is then lit with a lamp or a bulb (of course, Sri Lanka has a continuous supply of electricity now), to make the colors pop.
meaning of the vesak lantern
The 4-Square sides
In the Vesak lantern above, you see the Yellow squares right? All around, there’s 04 of those sides.
The 04 main sides of the Vesak Lantern symbolize the 04 Noble Truths in Buddhism (Chaathurarya Satya in Pali)
- Life has suffering (It’s not about the negativity but this means to recognize that loss, death, sickness, are all parts of life)
- The origin of suffering is attachment. (The root cause of suffering is craving and desire)
- The cessation of suffering is attainable. (By letting go of craving and achieving a state of non-attachment, suffering stops)
- The path to the cessation of suffering. (Provides a practical guide to The Noble Eightfold Path – steps to follow to break-free from the cycle of craving and desire)
The 8-Triangles in-between the 04 Squares
The side-shapes (triangles) of the Vesak Lantern symbolize the Noble Eightfold Path (Ariya Aṭṭhaṅgika Magga in Pali). In my Vesak lantern image, these are the Green-triangles. Let’s see what these 08 figures mean in the Vesak Lantern.
- Right understanding (Samma ditthi) – wisdom
- Right thought (Samma sankappa) – wisdom
- Right speech (Samma vaca) – ethical
- Right action (Samma kammanta) – ethical
- Right livelihood (Samma ajiva) – ethical
- Right effort (Samma vayama) – mental discipline
- Right mindfulness (Samma sati) – mental discipline
- Right concentration (Samma samadhi) – mental discipline
These 08 factors aim at promoting and perfecting the three essentials of Buddhist training and discipline: namely: (a) ethical conduct (sila), (b) mental discipline (samadhi) and (c) wisdom (panna). It will therefore be more helpful for a coherent and better understanding of the eight divisions of the path if we group them and explain them according to these three heads.
(a) in ethical conduct (sila), based on love and compassion, are included three factors of the noble eightfold path: namely, right speech, right action, and right livelihood.
(b) Next comes mental discipline, in which are included three other factors of the eightfold path: namely, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
(c) The remaining two factors, namely right thought and right understanding constitute wisdom in the noble eightfold path.
Open Top and Bottom of the Vesak Lantern
The square-shaped open spaces on the Top and the Bottom of the Vesak Lantern symbolize the Entry to Life (Birth) and Exit from Life (Death).
The Frills from the sides
These frills are with curls, curves, and bends. They are not just straight lines of paper but rather, made to be frills that gives more meaning to the Vesak Lantern. The frills symbolize the Ups and Downs of Life, the Happiness and Sadness, the basic way of life that has changes throughout.
how to make a vesak lantern?
Well, this takes practise and I can’t preach something I don’t have a solid experience with. I haven’t made a Vesak Lantern myself, yet.
So, my best suggestion is YouTube. Here’s a simple video on how you can make your own Vesak Lantern at home.
If this seems too much of a hassle, just buy one. During the Vesak week, literally every town, junction, city, road, has a Vesak lantern seller with their best stylish creations. I mean, that helps the economy too, right?
Vesak in Sri Lanka
It’s one of the most celebrated Buddhist calendar-events in Sri Lanka. Literally hundreds of thousands flock to the streets, going from these free-food/drink/refreshment stalls called Dansal, watching the beautiful Vesak Pandals (lights and huge artistic structures that has Buddhism-related stories depicted or animated).
Want to visit Sri Lanka during the Vesak season?