CHIANG RAI, Oct 20 — Thai and Myanmar Buddhists in this northern province this morning participated in the Tak Bat Devo Festival commemorating the end of Buddhist Lent yesterday.
Residents along the Thai-Myanmar border in Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district and Myanmar’s Tha Chi Lek province attended the event along Phaholyothin Road despite rainy conditions.
Tak Bat Devo comes from the word ‘Devorohana’ which means the day the Buddha returned from his visit to his mother in Tavatimsa Heaven. As the legend goes, the villagers of Sung Gus Nakorn were very delighted at the Buddha’s return so they came to give food offerings to him.
In Lamphun, hundreds of people made merit and gave alms to monks at the famous local Wat Phrathat Haripunchai Temple under the rain and cool weather, while in Pichit province, thousands of Buddhists attended a religious ceremony at a local temple in the provincial seat where the Buddha’s footprint is situated.
Meanwhile, in the southern province of Songkhla, around one thousand people joined the Tak Bat Devo Festival where 199 monks lined up to receive alms in the provincial seat. Some of the items offered to monks by Buddhists will be later donated to local temples in Songkhla’s four districts bordering the three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.
The religious ceremony is celebrated countrywide, including in the southern provinces of Phuket and Nakhon Si Thammarat as well as the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima.
