BUDDHIST RELIGIOUS YEAR. The Buddhist religious year celebrates seminal events in the life of the founder and the early religious community and sanctifies the annual changes of the seasons and the cyclical passage of time in which the life of the community is embedded. Particular cultural traditions adjust and amplify both dimensions of the Buddhist calendar according to their own histories and circumstances.

Each Buddhist culture developed its own religious calendar punctuated by particular ceremonies, rituals, and festivals. Chinese Buddhists, for example, celebrated the life of the Buddha and various bodhisattvas, the death anniversaries of certain figures in Chinese Buddhist history, various celestial beings (tian gong), the emperor's birthday, and such seasonal events as the celebration of the new year and the end of summer. In Tibet, the religious year included not only celebrations for the Buddha and major religious figures such as Padmasambhava...