Buddhist celebration
will be a first

The service will bring together
2 different Buddhist groups

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By Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.com

The birth of Buddha more than 2,500 years ago is marked by Hawaii Buddhists every year, but the celebration next weekend will be a first.

The April 7 service at Blaisdell Center Exhibition Hall will bring together the Hawaii Buddhist Council, which represents the seven major Japanese denominations here, and the Hawaii Association of International Buddhists.

The Rev. Irene Matsumoto of the council said it is the first time that Korean, Laotian, Thai, Vietnamese and Tibetan groups will join the Japanese temples in the ceremony revering the Indian prince Gautama Siddhartha, who founded the Buddhist philosophical tradition.

The 9 a.m. service, to be led by Bishop Taido Kitagawa, president of the council, will be followed by cultural presentations by each group. The speaker will be Jan Nattier, who is the Numata Foundation scholar in the University of Hawaii Religion Department this year. An Indiana University professor, she specializes in mahayana sutras.

The celebration is open to the public.

Traditions vary in their emphasis on particular teachings, rituals or meditative practices, but the difference that separates them in their Buddha Day celebration is one of timing, said Richard Paw U, who founded the Hawaii Association of International Buddhists 10 years ago.

"The full moon of May is when Buddhist lands apart from Japan celebrate the birth of Buddha, the time that he achieved enlightenment and the time of his death," said the Burmese scholar. "Prince Shotoku, who introduced Buddhism in Japan in the sixth century, decided it would be convenient for the Japanese to adapt it to the time of Hanamatsuri, the flower festival, when they celebrate the revival of life." The springtime festival was brought to Hawaii by Japanese immigrants.

Participants in the service will pour water -- or, in Japanese tradition, sweet tea -- over a statue of Buddha, recalling the circumstances of his birth in a fountain-filled garden. U said it is also "symbolic of the cleansing out of winter darkness, the coming to spring."

Asian Buddhists will still hold May celebrations, such as that sponsored by Buddha's Light Association in Chinatown.

"The importance of the worship together is that the Hawaii Buddhist Council is trying to get all Buddhists together for the first time as a gesture of good will," U said.

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