Itilhana Samyak Mahadan organized in Lalitpur

The Itilhana Samyak Mahadan, a celebration dedicated to Dipankara Buddha, takes place once every five years, in Lalitpur. This year’s festival, held in Nagabahal, saw a larger gathering of devotees and monks.

Unlike its more frequent observances, with Bhaktapur celebratessimilar festival annually and Kathmandu every 12 years, Patan’s iteration of the festival is a grand event that focuses on unity and giving. Known locally as DipankaraParva, the festival showcases an outstanding tradition of almsgiving, where devotees offer monetary donations, fruits, traditional sweets, and a variety of other gifts to the Buddhas.

A remarkable feature of this festival is the invitation extended to approximately 126 Dipankara Buddhasof different Bahaas of Lalitpur and its surroundings to participate in this significant event. The Golden Temple’s Dipankara Buddha was the leading figureof this grand assembly.

The Samyak festival also honours a host of other deities, including Arya Tara, Bodhisattvas, Avalokitesvara, and Basundhara, highlighting the rich tapestry of Newari tradition. Shakya and Bajracharya priests play a pivotal role in the ceremonies, further enriching this cultural and spiritual celebration.

“Mahadan is observed after the completion of four years – on the fifth year. Here, a total of 18 Bihar’s (in Lalitpur), Bhaktapur, Kathmandu and Kirtipur are brought at one place while a total number of gods brought to the function stood at around 140.

The Hiranya Varna Mahavihar, the largest vihar in Lalitpur, invites all vihars inside Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Kirtipur, Chovar, Bungamati and other places and offers them alms. As the alms-deed encourages people to be altruistic and live a compassionate life, it has been named Samyak Mahadan.

The two-day festival which started from Wednesday evening seeing over pouring flow of people from various walks of life offer-in grains, money and cereals.

History says that this festival has been celebrated for more than 7 centuries as it was started from Nepal Sambat 135 or 1015 AD, the Lichchhivi Period in Nepal’s ancient history.

Sigha Sarth Bahu, a merchant whose business continuously slide down had invited the Buddha idols from all the monasteries to the feast during the rule of King Brisha Dev in Sixth Century AD.

A resident of Keltole in Kathmandu organized a similar event in 1653 AD where he had invited King Pratap Malla, since then the celebrations has been carried on by the residents of Wotu, Lagan and Itumbahal, as per the historical beliefs and inscriptions.

Keeping up the tradition, Vihars which are run by people organizes the festival in gap of every 4 years where people pour-in to offer alms.

Till 1805, the Festival of Samyak Dan was celebrated annually, as the SamyakGuthis started experiencing hardships in managing resources for the festival it fell short to once in a half-decade.

Dipankara,”Lamp bearer” or Dipankara Buddha is one of the Buddhas of the past. He is said to have lived on Earth long long ago. According to some Buddhist or folk traditions, Dipankara was a previous Buddha who attained enlightenment eons prior to Gautama Buddha, the historical Buddha.

Generally, Buddhists believe that there has been a succession of many Buddhas in the distant past and that many more will appear in the future. Dipankara was one of these previous Buddhas, while Gautama Buddha was the current and most recent enlightened one, and Maitreya Buddha will be the next Buddha in the future.

Chinese Buddhism honours Dipankara as one of many Buddhas of the past. Dipankara, Gautama, and Maitreya are “the Buddhas of Three Times” in Yiguandao.

One story shown in Buddhist art has Gautama Buddha in a former incarnation known as Sumedha, a rich Brahmana turned hermit kneeling and laying his long black hair on the ground, in an act of piety that the Dipankara Buddha could cross a puddle of mud without soiling his feet.

This meeting between Dipankara and Sumedha occurred many lifetimes before Sumedha’s eventual enlightenment as Gautama Buddha (Shakyamuni). From this act, Dipankara told Sumedha “In the ages of the future you will come to be a Buddha called ‘Shakyamuni, to which Sumedha replied, “I am to become a Buddha, awakened to enlightenment; may you tread with your feet on my hair – on my birth, old age, and death.”

Dipankara then said, “Freed from human existence, you will become an effective teacher, for the sake of the world. Born among the Shakyas, as the epitome of the Triple World, the Lamp of all Beings, you will be known as Gautama. You will be the son of King Suddhodana and Queen Maya. Sariputta and Moggallana will be your chief disciples. Your caretaker will be named Ananda.”

In the 40-plus years of his life after enlightenment, Gautama Buddha is said to have recounted almost 554 past life stories, (called Jaataka tales) of his prior existences. Gautama Buddha is quoted as saying a person starts the journey to become a Buddha filling 10 Paramita or “perfections”. Some sources and scriptures recount that the Bodhisattva Gautama was born as Prince Sumedha in the time of Dipankara, and was rich and gave away all his wealth to become a monk. It is said that Gautama Bodhisattva received his first Niyatha Vivarana, (or definite foresighting by a Buddha) from Dipankara. This encounter, among many other predictions of Gautama Buddha’s future enlightenment, can be found in the Mahayana text Sangatha Sutra.