Throughout the villages and cities of Southeast Asia, millions are preparing this week for a celebration that will be a landmark in their lives — the 2,500th anniversary of the death of the Buddha, founder of a religion followed by perhaps a fifth of the world's population.*
In Burma, almost the entire air time of the Burma Broadcasting Service was devoted last week to news of the celebration, and the air force was alerted to drop leaflet notices all over the country. The government of Buddhist Premier U Nu planned to reduce all prison sentences by six months to two years, and to commute all death sentences to 20-year terms. Animals and birds awaiting slaughter will be released, and slaughterhouses, fish markets and butcher shops will be closed. More than 100,000 Burmese will make a pilgrimage to Rangoon, where 2,500 young men will be ordained to the Buddhist priesthood.
In Colombo, Ceylon, workers had rushed to install a $1,500,000 diesel generator to handle the extra current needed for the strings of lights festooning almost every building, and some 50 flat-bed trucks were converted into illuminated floats depicting scenes from Buddha's life—a blazing caravan that will tour the entire island. In Kandy, famed as the site of a temple containing Buddha's tooth, a parade of elephants will carry the tooth, in its casket, through the town, and thousands of beggars will be fed and clothed in honor of the occasion.
To the blare of conch shells, India's Prime Minister Nehru (Hindu by birth and agnostic by practice) will lay the cornerstone of a Buddhist monument in New Delhi. But India's principal celebrations will take place in four sacred places: Lumbini. where Buddha was born; Bodh Gaya, where he achieved enlightenment; Sarnath, where he preached his first sermon; Kushinara, where he died.
The Noble Four & Eight. Buddha was born Gautama, the prince, son of a rajah, who gave him palaces, slaves, dancing girls, every kind of beauty and pleasure. One day, on a forbidden ride outside the palace grounds, he encountered four persons: an old man, an ill man, a dead man and an ascetic. Profoundly troubled by this look at reality, 29-year-old Gautama one night took silent leave of his sleeping wife and son and rode off.
Deep in a forest he met two hermits, with whom he practiced contemplation, until he saw that it led nowhere. Then he attached himself to five ascetics and fasted, until "when I touched my belly I felt my backbone through it." But this, too. proved a spiritual dead end, and at last, after six years of experiment, he sat down beneath a Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya in northeastern India and determined not to move until he had plumbed the secret of existence. After 49 days it came—what Buddhists call The Enlightenment. "I knew," said Buddha, " 'rebirth' has been destroyed, the higher life has been led; what had to be done has been done. I have no more to do with this world."