ས་ག་ཟླ་བ། (sa ga zla ba): 6 Things you may not know about Saga Dawa

Tibetan calendar uses both numbers and names to identify the 12 months of a year. The fourth Tibetan month is called “Saga” (ས་ག་), and is perhaps the most well-known month.
Q1. Why is Saga Dawa (ས་ག་ཟླ་བ་) special?
Buddhists commemorate three important events in Buddha's life on the 15th day (full moon day) of this month, making it very auspicious, special, and the holiest.
1. Birth
2. Enlightenment (nirvana)
3. Death (parinirvana)
Q2. When did these events happen?
1. Birth - 623 BC
2. Enlightenment (nirvana) - 588 BC (at the age of 35)
3. Death (parinirvana) - 543 BC (at the age of 80)
Q3. How is Saga Dawa celebrated?
During the entire month, Buddhists try to focus on performing good deeds, such as praying at temples and monasteries, giving alms to the poor, reading scriptures, chanting mantras, and taking special vows to lead a better life.
A common belief among the Tibetans is that any good action during the Saga month reaps 100,000 times its usual benefits. Not eating meat for the whole month or on the 15th day is a common practice.
Q4. How did it get its name?
Tibetans borrowed the month names from the ancient Indian astrological traditions that have been in use since 1000 BC. Saga is Vaishakh (वैशाख ) in Sanskrit, the name of a star.
Q5. Where can you find the Saga star?
In modern astronomy, the Saga star is called Zubenelgenubi (α2 Lib), found in Libra, one of the 88 constellations recognised by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). This is one of the 336 IAU-approved star names as of 10 August 2018.
Q. 6 Why do the dates of Saga Dawa (ས་ག་ཟླ་བ་) vary across countries and cultures?
It's because of the differences in calendars being used to mark the month. Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and India celebrated Saga Dawa Day (full moon day) in May this year. A month later, the followers of Tibetan Buddhism celebrated the special day on the 5th of June, 2020.
Suggested reading and resources:
- Thurman, R. (2019). Celebrating Shakyamuni: Saka Dawa 2029-Podcast Bonus. Retrieved from bobthurman.com/saka-dawa-2019/
- Berzin, A (n.d.). The Tibetan Calendar. Retrieved from studybuddhism.com/en/advanced...
- སེར་བྱེས་རིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ། (n.d.). ས་ག་ཟླ་བ།. Retrieved from www.serajeyrigzodchenmo.org/t...
- Wisdom Library (n.d.). Vishakha, Visakha, Viśākha, Visākhā, Visākha, Viśākhā, Viśakha: 24 definitions. Retrieved from www.wisdomlib.org/definition/...
- UNESCO (n.d.). Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha. Retrieved from whc.unesco.org/en/list/666/#:....
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art (n.d.). Life of the Buddha. Retrieved from www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bud...
- Constellations of Words (n.d.). The history of the star: Zuben Elgenubi. Retrieved from www.constellationsofwords.com...
- Wikipedia (n.d.). Nakshatra. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakshatra
- AstroVedPedia (n.d.). Vishakha Nakshatra. Retrieved from www.astroved.com/astropedia/e...
- International Astronomical Union (n.d.). Naming Stars. Retrieved from www.iau.org/public/themes/nam...
- Lunar and Planetary Institute (n.d.). About Constellations. Retrieved from www.lpi.usra.edu/education/sk...
- Locate stars and planets on theskylive.com theskylive.com/sky/stars/zube...
- Locate stars and planets on stellarium-web.org
- stellarium-web.org/
Image credits:
- Google (google.com) for images from Google Earth and Google MyMaps
- The SkyLive (theskylive.com/) for generating the image of Libra in the sky on 5th of June, 2020.
- All the other pictures were obtained from Pixabay (pixabay.com)
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