Moments of Ullambana Festival

There are only ten more days left until Ullambana Festival 2023, and Buddhists are always emotional on this occasion. Ullambana is considered as the most Buddhist successful “festival” that arouses the spirit of filial piety in social life, bringing Buddhism to people in the closest way.

Every Buddhist layperson who visits the pagoda during Ullambana Festival will be greeted by monks with loving-kindness and blessings for happiness and peace.

In this short writing, following the “trace” of serious research written by the seniors, the writer will summarize, quote and introduce to everyone the brief and relatively complete meaning and origin of Ullambana Festival.

When did the first Ullambana festival originate?

Research by Senior Venerable Thich Chuc Phu entitled “Buddhism Rectification”, volume 1, page 168, stated the origin of Ullambana Festival:

“If we count from Emperor Wu of Liang who held the Ullambana festival at Dong Thai pagoda in the fourth Dai Dong (538), this festival of Northern Buddhism had a developed history of nearly 1.500 years. With that long existing history, the festival has proven its special contribution to the development of human culture in general and Buddhism in particular”.

Thus, we know the history of the Ullambana festival.

What does “Ullambana” mean?

The writer would like to quote an extract by Prof. An Chi in Today’s Knowledge, No, 399 (10 Sep, 2001):

“Vu Lan in Vietnamese is a short form of Vu Lan Bon, which has its transliteration from the Sanskrit noun “Ullambhana”. First, the letter only has  “Ô-lam-bà-na”. Then, “Vu” standing for “Ô”, “Lan” standing for “Lam”, and “Bồn” standing for “Bà-na” were added to the word. So, Vu Lan Bồn are the three Vietnamese words to transliterate the Sanskrit “Ullambhana”, and each Vietnamese word does not have its meaning. Therefore, that is completely incorrect if “Bồn” is separated for Vietnamese translation as a “food bowl”.

Ullambana means deliverance. This Sanskrit noun has three morphemes: the prefix Ud (become Ul due to Sandhi inflection rule when D goes before L), the root word Lambh, and the suffix Ana (…). The prefix Ud means negative or opposite (…,) while the root word Lambh is an alternative form of “Lambh” meaning “taking”, or “grasping”. So, “Ul Lambh” means “liberating”. The suffix Ana indicates action which relates to meaning that the prefix and the root word describe. Thus, Ullambhana means deliverance. Ullambhana is transliterated into Chinese by three words read as Vu Lan Bôn in Sino-Vietnamese. Its short form is “Vu Lan”. Consequently, Vu Lan in Vietnamese means deliverance.

Mathews' Chinese–English Dictionary notes briefly and exactly about the origin of “Vu Lan Bon'' as below: From the Sanskrit Ullambhana, deliverance.

(Because in Sanskrit, Ullambhana means deliverance)”.

This is a research study by Prof. An Chi – a great master among so many Vietnamese Buddhism researchers. His writing is also accepted and agreed by many senior monks.

Does Southern Buddhism have Vu Lan or not?

Research and analysis by Superior Ven. Thich Chuc Phu found a story which is similar to the story of Maha Moggallana, who saved his mother from suffering hell in the Nikaya Sutra. And this interesting story also appears in Chinese literature. I would like to summarize the main idea made by Ven Thich Chuc Phu’s research in his works “Buddhism Rectification'' (volume 1), “Vu Lan Sutra – research on the Chinese origin and Nikaya'':

The first idea is that there is a Chinese sutra that is similar to Vu Lan Sutra which we are chanting named Uu-da-la Mau sutra (or Uu-da-la Mau Doa Nga Quy Duyen) in “ Soan Tap Bach Duyen sutra”, Vol.# 5, and it is translated by Chi Khiem at Dong Ngo in the period of 222-253. In Nikaya, “Nga Quy Su” - a volume in Minor’s Sutra, Uttaramatu Petavatthu (Ubbari section), these two materials in Chinese are similar (there are only some insignificant differences).

The second idea is that the Uttara character, translated as Uu-da-la or Uat-da-la as mentioned in the first idea, is the person who received the Agama Sutra from Ananda (in the Agama Sutra, Vol. 1).

The third idea is that when we read that sutra and compare it with the Ullambana Sutra that we are chanting every day, we will see the remarkable similarity. The only difference is that in the Ullambana Sutra, the main character is Moggallana; in Uttaramatu petavatthu (Uu-da-la Mau Doa Nga Quy Duyen) the main character is Uttara (Uu-da-la).

Thus, talking about the linear character origin and story plot in Ullambana Sutra, it is completely based on Chinese and Nikaya of Southern Buddhism. If you have time, you can read in more detail in “Buddhism Rectification” (volume 1), “Vu Lan Sutra – research on Chinese origin and Nikaya” - a section written by Superior Ven. Thích Chuc Phu.

Conclusion

Through the above ideas, the writer would like to generalize and introduce a little about the meaning, origin and the similarity of the Ullambana Festival in order to gain belief of everyone in cultivating Buddha’s teaching.

To end this writing, I would like to quote a passage from an article that is synthesized by Mai Linh entitled  “Where does the filial piety Ullambana festival come from?” posted on VTV News website on 18 August, 2023, as an end as well as an appreciation to readers on this Ullambana festival:

“In the heart of every Vietnamese person, Ullambana is not only a Buddhist ritual but also a common festival for children showing their filial piety towards the one who gave birth and raised them. Ullambana Festival is also an occasion where we can live slower, love more and take practical actions to repay parents’ favor and share things with people around us.

 The Ullambana  Festival of filial piety has become a Vietnamese cultural beauty, an occasion to remind us: “whoever still has father do not make him suffer, remember filial piety comes first. Whoever still has mother, do not make her cry, do not make mother eyes sad…”

Tam Cung

Translated into English by Nguyen Thi Tham