Young Buddhists take part in an event marking Setana Thambara’s 100th anniversary last week. Pic: Lwin Maung Maung

A LOCAL Buddhist association that organises offerings of gold leaf to Shwedagon Pagoda every year is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a series of events from December through April.

U Kyaw Aye, the president of the Yangon-based Setana Thambara association, said last month that about 10 events will be held during the period, starting with a ceremony to donate rice to monks held late last month.

He said other events will include a Buddhist book fair, fun fairs, special sermons for children and exhibitions about the life of Buddha and the history of Buddhism.

“We are organising these ceremonies not only to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the association’s founding but also to show a debt of gratitude to the founders,” U Kyaw Aye said.

He said the association organises sermons every year after it donates gold leaf to Shwedagon Pagoda but the upcoming sermons for the 100-year anniversary would be targeted at children.

“The regular sermons are too difficult for children to understand but they should be taught about Buddhism from and early age,” he said.

U Kyaw Aye said the association will also organise a three-day discussion on Dhamma (the way to truth) led by scholars.

He said the exhibitions about Buddha’s life and the history of Buddhism will include information on the 10 Perfections of the Buddha, abstracts of the Tipitaka (Buddhist canon), an account of how Buddhism spread from India, biographies of well-known monks and a history of Setana Thambara.

The Buddhist book fair will include publications from more than 10 publishing houses on a wide range of Buddhism-oriented topics, U Kyaw Aye said.
“Although we can buy such books at many pagodas, there has never been such book fair,” he said.

Most of the events will be held at the association’s headquarters on Bawga Street in Kyeemyindaing township and at its shrine on the platform of Shwedagon Pagoda.

Setana Thambara was founded in 1907 by a group of people who were residents of Bawga Street. The association claims to have never failed in its work of cleaning and praying at Shwedagon Pagoda during its 100-year history.