WHY CELEBRATE "PARENTS' OR MOTHERS' DAY" ON LHABAB DHUECHEN

His Holiness the Je Khenpo commanded that the Parents' or Mothers' Day be celebrated on the Descending Day of Lord Buddha aka "Lhabab Dhuechen" in Bhutan. But why? Let us comprehend. 

Buddhists believe that it was on this day that the Buddha made his descent back to earth, after having gone up to Trayastrima, the 33rd realm of Heaven (ལྷ་ཡུལ་གསུམ་བཅུ་རྩ་གསུམ) to teach his mother, Queen Maya Devi, who took the reincarnation of a god (ལྷ). Some references say, he was invited by Lord Brahma (ལྷ་ཚངས་པ) and Lord Indra (ལྷ་བརྒྱ་སྦྱིན) to teach other beings as well. In total, Buddha stayed there for three months. Please remember that existence and pleasures on those heavens (ལྷ་ཡུལ་) are samsaric in nature unlike Buddha paradise (སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་གོ་འཕང།)

The disciples and people on earth missed Buddha's teachings and insisted through Maudgalyayana (མོའུ་འགལ་གྱི་བུ), one of the closest disciples with supernatural ability to approach Buddha. Only after an argument with Maudgalyayana, did Buddha finally decide to return to the earth. It is believed that Buddha descended on the three gem-decked ladders (beryl, gold and silver) constructed by Lord Vishwakarma upon the order of Lord Indra. 

Now, here comes the spiritual importance of parents and the relationship His Holiness the Je Khenpo drew between Lhabab Dhuechen and Parent's Day. 

Even though Prince Gautama was able to attain enlightenment, he couldn't entirely pay off the motherly debts and gratitude and had to travel all the way to the 33rd realm of gods to liberate his mother. In short, lay Bhutanese say: Despite being an enlightened being, all Buddha was able to reciprocate was pay off the gratitude for suckling from single breast (སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཡང་ ཁོ་རའི་ཨའི་གི་ ཨོམ་ཡ་གཅིག་གིས་ དྲིན་ལན་ལས་བརྒལ་ འཇལ་མ་ཚུགས།). What about the gratitude for bearing in the womb, enduring labour pain, life risks during birth, raising of child with love, worries and struggles? Are those debts yet to be paid? Meaning ordinary people like us have to strive triply harder in order to pay back the gratitude. 

We ought to take care of our mothers sincerely and do the best we can to keep them happy. In doing so, we must also respect all mothers, including animals who are pregnant and those with babies to raise. All should be treated humanely. 

Upon Buddha's descent on earth, another miracle happened. The large crowd was awestruck to see a unique stupa smoothly land from the sky. Some people rose to ask Buddha its significance. Buddha then told the crowd  this story: Eons back, there was a King, a Crown Prince and the Prince's consort and their only son. Unfortunately, an internal strife led the Crown Prince and his family to flee their country. On their journey to another Kingdom for refuge, they struggled for food and water. Since the three could die from hunger, the Crown Prince discussed the plan of taking either his or his consort's life to save their child by feeding their flesh and blood. Overheard, the young yet compassionate son asked his parents to forgo the plan. Instead, he volunteered to sacrifice his flesh and blood for them. On being adamant and insistent, they decided to go with their son's plan. Thus, every hunger took some flesh and blood of the son and before reaching the host Kingdom, the young one died. That incident was reported to the host King. Stirred emotionally by the extraordinary story, the host King collected the remains of the body and built a kudung stupa in his honour. 

Buddha told the crowd that the boy who sacrificed his life for his parents was one of the thousand lives Buddha undertook before his enlightenment. And the stupa that just landed was the one built by the host king to preserve the son's kudung. The message Buddha brought to the crowd was, 'every sacrifice is worth if it is for the parents'. 

Lhabab Dhuechen is celebrated on the twenty-second day of the ninth month on the Buddhist calendar. Its date varies on the Gregorian Calendar, but it normally arrives sometime in November.

The entire holiday of Lhabab Duchen actually spans across seven days, but only the first day has public holiday status.

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY! BLESSED LHABAB DHUECHEN. 

Sources: 

1. Translated from His Holiness' audio record from a program of Labshey Nyenshey.

2. Adapted from Paro Lam Neten's interview on BBS.

3. Website: Public Holidays in Asia.