Last week-end we attended Kathina, perhaps the most important of all Buddhist festivals, at Ponte a Moriano where the Sri Lankan Buddhist community of the Lucchesia have their temple presided over by Bhikkhu (monk) Bante Rahula. What does the festival celebrate?  The name ‘Kathina’ comes from the Pali word meaning rigid and refers to the wood frame used to measure monks’ robes.

It also refers to the new robes which are given worshippers to the monks at the end of their retreat during the rainy season. More specifically an ancient text, the Vinaya Pitka, relates how a group of monks on their way to visit the Buddha had to interrupt their pilgrimage because of the start of the rainy season.  Not wishing to tread on newly-planted crops and not wanting to kill the bugs which infest that season the monks decided to withdraw to a retreat and practice meditation. When the rains stopped they continued on their way to meet the Buddha but with robes that were now wet and dirty and full of holes. Arriving at their destination the Buddha was glad to note the devotion of his disciples and gifted them with a new cloth given to him by a religious lady. Hence the tradition arose that at that time of year Buddhist monks receive new pieces of cloth for their wear. It seemed that for us too the rainy season had drawn to a close since after weeks of daily downpours a brightly sunny day dawned as if the Buddha had wanted to gift us specially!

The cloth donated earns merit for devotees (of the southern or Theravada branch of Buddhism). Merit is also gained by visiting temples and monasteries and giving offerings of food. In our case I donated a loaf of sunflower flour bread I’d baked earlier and, most considerately, we were given a piece of the characteristic orange-yellow cloth, about three square metres in length, which we able to offer to the chief Bhikkhu (Buddhist monk) of the Toscana region.

The Kathina celebrations are spread out over a month and end on the next full moon. Their conclusion also heralds the time when the Buddha sent out his first disciples in order for them to spread his teachings, or Dharma, to the world.

Ponte a Moriano’s main square is a place we normally visit for its weekly market, to attend a show at its fine newly-restored theatre or just to visit its local euro-shop and grab a cappuccino from the nearby bar. So it was especially unusual to find the square filled with a motley crowd from Lucchesia’s Sri Lankan community, a handful of Bhikkhus from the region in their orange and burgundy-coloured robes, a quartet of sinuous dancing girls, drummers, standard-bearers, and even a daemon to ward off any evil spirits lurking about.

The procession formed up and we were asked to join it after the Bhikkhus who followed a car bearing the Buddha’s statue. Behind us were the dancers with beautifully synchronised movements, their feet bare on the gravelly road surface…

Arriving at the little temple we gave our offering of cloth to the senior Bhikkhu who gratefully accepted it. We bowed before him but did not go to the length of kissing the floor before him like the Sri Lankan devotees.

An excellent lunch in the temple’s garden which hosts a Bodhi tree like the one under which the Buddha found enlightenment at Sarnath (which place I had visited in 1967) followed with two types of rice, white and pink, and sundry vegetables including dahl and brinjal nicely flavoured with spices and coconut. All concluded with gelato (of course!).

(These below are the photos I took of my visit to Sarnath in 1967. I’d hitched there from South- east London after escaping from my final term at school).

We had visited Sri Lanka in at the start of 2020. Unfortunately we were not able to conclude our holiday there because of the onset of the Covid pandemic. It was, therefore, especially pleasing for us to be invited as guests for the Kathina festival.

The whole event was well self-policed. Also, although some of the local Ponte a Moriano populace watched the procession from their houses and shops none attended the festival. Indeed, apart from two other Italians, we were the only ‘foreigners’ present. But we were warmly welcomed and made to feel like guests of honour. It almost made me wish that I should start to become a good Buddhist.

Certainly reading the Dhammapada, that great religious text written in the Pali language centuries before Christianity came onto the religious scene, made me realise how much we are lacking in the world today of positive rules of social conduct and right action. Just think of what is so tragically happening in so many parts of the world especially in countries bordering the Mediterranean and Black seas.

As Buddha’s text says – a sentiment reflected in so many others of the word’s great teachers:

“Hate is not conquered by hate. Hate is conquered by love. This is a law eternal.”

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