People lined up more than 3 km long waiting to worship Buddha's relics

At around 8 o'clock, in the stupa of Thanh Tam Pagoda - where Buddha's relics - a national treasure of India - are enshrined, crowds of people came to worship.

The relics are enshrined in a tower and strictly protected.

A day earlier, a military plane carrying the relics landed at Tan Son Nhat airport. After a solemn handover ceremony, the relics were taken to Thanh Tam Pagoda, where the 2025 United Nations Day of Vesak will take place.

The relics are enshrined in a stupa and strictly protected. According to Indian diplomatic regulations, each time the relics are brought abroad, it is considered a national event, equivalent to a visit by a head of state.

People lined up waiting to see the Buddha's relics.

The relic, which contained part of the skull of the religion's founder, was discovered in Kapilavastu in 1898 by British archaeologist William Claxton Peppe (1852-1937).

In 1997, the Thai Buddhist community and artisans made a gold-plated stupa, topped with 109 grams of gold, to show respect and worship the real relics of the Buddha. The space to enshrine the relics is solemnly decorated, divided into two directions, the entrance and the exit. Visitors to the tower are not allowed to bring incense, candles, or take photos or videos. Each person walks around the relics in a circle and then goes outside, for about a minute.

Outside the Thanh Tam Pagoda, the crowd was about 3 km long, divided into many small lines. To ensure order and limit congestion on the roads leading to the grand ceremony, traffic police, militia, and police were constantly on duty to direct traffic. Outside the main hall of the pagoda, Buddhists were crowded with people burning incense and praying to Buddha. By noon, the number of visitors to the pagoda increased.

During the three days of the ceremony, many activities took place at the Buddhist Academy, including: displaying 87 national treasures of Buddhism through the periods since this religion was introduced to Vietnam, releasing 12,000 flower lanterns, raising a 500 m2 Buddhist flag...

The 2025 Vesak Festival will be the fourth time Vietnam has hosted the event, after three previous events in 2008 at the My Dinh National Convention Center in Hanoi, 2014 at Bai Dinh Pagoda in Ninh Binh, and 2019 at Tam Chuc Pagoda in Ha Nam. The organizers expect delegates from 80 countries and more than 10,000 Buddhists to participate in the largest festival of Buddhists in the world .

According to VnExpress

Source: https://baobacgiang.vn/dong-nguoi-xep-hang-hon-3-km-cho-chiem-bai-xa-loi-duc-phat-postid417365.bbg