Letchworth Annual Kathina Ceremony Highlights 02-11-2014

Annual Kathina Ceremony of Letchworth Dhamma Nikethanaya Buddhist Cultural Centre was colourfully held on 02nd November 2014. This was the 11th consecutive Kathina ceremony of the centre. This year ceremony was dedicated in Tribute to the Loving Parents specially inviting loving parents of Venerable Bhante Akurala Samitha from Sri Lanka. A day programme went in grand scale with a large number venerable monks and over two hundred gathering of cosmopolitan members of the community.

Letchworth Dhamma Nikethanaya Kathina Ceremony 2014

Brings tributes to Parents

The Annual Kathina Ceremony of Letchworth Dhamma Nikethanaya Buddhist Cultural Centre was held on Sunday 02^nd November 2014 at St Michael’s Church Hall in Letchworth Garden City. This was the 11^th consecutive Kathina Ceremony held by Dhamma Nikethanaya Community.

This year’s ceremony was dedicated in Tribute to the Loving Parents of Venerable Bhante Akurala Samitha’s parents, Mr S H Siripala De Silva & Mrs D Dayawathie Mendis. They were the special invitees who received a high tribute from the community in respect of the outstanding contributions made by their son, the Head of Centre, Venerable Bhante Akurala Samitha.

This year The Kathina Ceremony was mainly sponsored by the children of the late Mr Kishan Chand Summan Mr Manohar & Mrs Shiela Summan as the leading principal sponsors of the family, in loving memory of their dearest father. A large gathering of venerable monks and over two hundred cosmopolitan member families of Dhamma Nikethanaya Community participated.

The Kathina Ceremony is one of the biggest Buddhist festivals and regarded as highly meritorious and significantly blissful. It is a ceremony held to mark the end of the annual three-month spiritual rains retreat, observed by venerable monks residing at the monastery. The members of the community engage fully by contributing more time and efforts for practising Meditation, Studying Dhamma Teachings, Practising generosity (dana), observing Moral Conduct and conducting lots of Blessings Pooja.

Accustomed to the 26 centuries old unhindered tradition, monks at Letchworth Dhamma Nikethanaya Buddhist Cultural Centre observed this year’s Three Months Rains Retreat on Sunday 13^th Esala (July) Full Moon Day 2014. During these three months, public from all walks of life had wonderful opportunities to learn much of the Buddha Dhamma (teachings of the Lord Buddha) for peace and happiness in their daily lives.

The Dhamma Nikethanaya Buddhist Cultural Centre Community hosted this year’s ceremony particularly in tribute to parents. A significant number of children who are members of the centre and living in the United Kingdom had invited their parents in Sri Lanka and participated in the ceremony. All parents joined in solidarity with Venerable Bhante Akurala Samitha’s parents, brought the brightest shine to this year’s ceremony. The closing item of the ceremony was the beautiful pooja for twenty eight Lord Buddhas, which was sponsored by Mrs Nita Gurusinghe for good health and blessings to their loving mother.

Among other highlights, were the enthusiastic engagements of the children of Dhamma Nikethanaya Community in customary activities taking leading roles. Everyone highly appreciated the highly spiritual harmonious feeling felt throughout the ceremonies. The community was very grateful to Venerable Akurala Samitha for his wisdom and remarkable dedication particularly for children’s educational programmes.

The local community appreciated very much the opportunity to experience the traditional cultural items of the ceremony; for example, traditional Kathina procession (perahera) according to typical historical custom with cultural drummers, carrying of Buddhist flags and bearing the sacred relics of Lord Buddha, with a Sacred sapling of the original Bodhi tree and the Kathina Robe.

The Ceremony was blessed with the presence of over 14 venerable Buddhist Monks representing leading Buddhist Temples in the United Kingdom. Among them were Most Venerable Dr Witharandeniye Kassapa Maha Thero OBE (Head Monks of Birmingham Buddhist Maha Vihara), Most Venerable Ehaliyagoda Dhammapala Maha Thero (Head Monk of Thames Buddhist Centre), Most Venerable Witiyala Indrasiri Maha Thero (Birmingham Buddhist Vihara), Most Venerable Madugalle Mahanama Thero (Deputy Head Monk of East London Lumbini Buddhist Cultural Centre), Most Venerable Waskaduwe Subodhi Thero (Representing Kingsbury Temple), Venerable Manampita Pannarathana Thero (Birmingham Buddhist Vihara), Venerable Madille Pannaloka Thero (Thames Buddhist Vihara), Venerable Rambodagama Naradha Thero (Thames Buddhist Vihara), Venerable Kohukumbure Siridhamma Thero (Thames Buddhist Vihara), Venerable Galkandeve Sumanarathana Thero (East London Lumbini Vihara), Venerable Panna Sri of Bangladesh (East London Lumbini Vihara), Venerable Tissa of Nepal (Kingsbury Vihara) and Venerable Bhante Thejawanta Thero of India (Head Monk of Wolverhampton Buddha Vihara).

The day’s programme commenced at 10AM with the Kathina Robe being brought in elegant procession to the ceremony hall followed by offering gifts and food to monks, listening to Dhamma talks delivered by monks in three languages, English, Sinhala & Hindi, blessings chanting and sharing food with all.

The keynote speech was delivered by Mr Madawala Hemananda on “Amazing Practical benefits of Middle Path” in simple and secular form and introduced his new book “The Power of Reality, the Buddha used”. He donated a few copies of the book to the centre. Copies for the interested, are available at the centre and contributions will go for the welfare of the centre. On behalf the centre, Venerable Akurala Samitha deeply appreciated the contributions of Mr Madawala Hemananda.

A delegation of devotees of the Thames Buddhist Vihara attended to appreciate Venerable Akurala Samitha’s extended support towards their community. Children of Thames Buddhist Vihara, Gayan Amarasinghe, Ruchira jayathilake, Nishan Amarasinghe & Kevin Amarasinghe added an extra delight to the ceremony with their traditional Sri Lankan drumming dressed in typical costumes and leading the Kathina Procession.

The monks chanted special blessings particularly on the parents of Venerable Akurala Samitha, Mr S H Siripala De Silva and Mrs D Dayawathie Mendis and the community. Conducting the final twenty eight Buddhas’ Blessings pooja Venerable Akurala Samitha thanked everyone who supported by many means like financial donations, preparing dana items and participation, to make this year’s ceremony a huge success. Special thanks were also offered to all the venerable monks, children and devotees of Thames Vihara, Mr Nihal & Mrs Indika jayathilake, Mrs Renuka Amarasinghe who co-ordinated drumming of the children, Mrs Shiela Leslie who contributed towards the welfare of the monks and Mr Neil & Mrs Nita Gurusinghe who organized the parents blessings pooja.

Outstanding hall decorations and ceremony arrangements were also highly appreciated by everyone. Venerable Samitha invoked the blessings specially to Miss Padma Wijeratna who co-ordinated the ceremony venue arrangements with the much appreciated dedication of the volunteers, Mr Chanka & Mrs Thivanka Herath, Mr Sanjaya Dodangoda & Mrs Uthpala Wijemanna and Mr S H Siripala De Silva. Mr Priyantha Uluvita was thanked for his support with photography.

For more details please visit our website: www.buddhistacademy.com

May the Blessings of this greatest meritorious deed fulfil, without exception the aspirations of all, and lead to the everlasting happiness Nibbana!  May all be secure, well and happy with Noble Blessings of the Triple Gem!

Photographs by Mr Priyantha Uluvita

Report by Secretary, Dhamma Nikethanaya

Letchworth Dhamma Nikethanaya Kathina Ceremony 02-11-2014 tributes to Parents	Children dressed in traditional costumes attended the Kathina Procession
Kathina Procession proceeds from the centre	Taking the Sacred relics in the procession to the Ceremony Venue
Kathina Procession reaching the ceremony venue	Procession proceeding to the main Shrine of the ceremony venue
Bringing the Kathina Robe and Sacred Relics in procession to the ceremony venue	Children leading the procession with Traditional Drumming
Devotees attending the ceremony	Devotees attending the ceremony
Devotees observing precepts at the start of the ceremony	Father of Venerable Samitha Mr S H Siripala De Silva sewing the Kathina Robe
Mother of Venerable Samitha Mrs D Dayawathie Mendis sewing the Kathina Robe	Devotees attending to the Kathina robe sewing
Lightening the traditional oil lamp	Dedicating the materials to make a Kathina Robe
Devotees Offering the Buddha Pooja	Parents of Venerable Samitha at the ceremony
Devotees offering dana to Venerable Monks at the ceremony	Devotees attending the ceremony
Devotees attending the ceremony	Large number of cosmopolitan members of the community attended the Kathina Ceremony 2014
Devotees attending the Kathina Ceremony	Devotees join with parents to attend the Kathina Ceremony 2014
Bringing the Kathina Robe 2014 to offer to the Monks	Devotees offering dana to Venerable Monks
Venerable Monks at the Kathina Dana	Devotees offering Kathina Dana
Devotees offering Kathina Dana	Devotees offering Kathina Dana
Devotees offering Kathina Dana	Devotees offering Kathina Dana
Devotees joined with main sponsors to dedicate the Kathina Robe for the Maha Sangha	Community dedicating the Kathina robe to Maha Sangha
Bringing the Kathina Robe to offer to the monks	Main sponsors offered the Kathina Robe to Venerable Monks
Venerable Monks gathered to perform necessary traditional monastic disciplinary rituals to dedicate the Kathina Robe	Parents of Venerable Samitha Mr S H Siripala De Silva & Mrs D Dayawathie Mendis with all the venerable monks at the ceremony
Parents paying respect to the venerable monks	Parents offering gratitude pooja to venerable monks
Parents meeting the Venerable Monks	Parents joining Annual Kathina Ceremony 2014 as invited chief guests
Devotees offering gifts to Venerable Monks	Devotees offering gifts to Venerable Monks
Devotees offering gifts dana to Venerable Monks	Devotees offering gifts to Venerable Monks
Children offering special gifts to Venerable Monks	Mr Madawala Hemananda delivers the Keynote speech on “Amazing practical benefits of Middle Path” in simple and secular form and introduces his new book “The Power of Reality, the Buddha used”
Devotees listening to the talk	Devotees at the Ceremony
Devotees listending to the Dhamma talks in all three languages English, Sinhala & Hindi	Devotees listening to the Dhamma talks in all three languages English, Sinhala & Hindi
Devotees preparing Atavisi Buddha Pooja	Devotees preparing Atavisi Buddha Pooja in Tribute to Parents
Devotees preparing Atavisi Buddha Pooja in Tribute to Parents	Venerable Samitha conducting the Parents tribute Atavisi Buddha Pooja at the end of Kathina Ceremony
Parents of Venerable Samitha enjoyed the blessings of the ceremony with the community friends	Venerable Samtiha welcomes Venerable Monks to Kathina Ceremony 2014
Administering Five precepts	Monks attending the ceremony
Offering dana to Monks	Offering Buddha Pooja
Devotees at the ceremony	Monks attended to the Kathina Ceremony 2014
Sewing the Kathina Robe	Sewing the Kathina Robe
Sewing the Kathina Robe	Sewing the Kathina Robe
Bearing Lord Buddha Relics	Bearing faithfully the Kathina Robe