DHARAMSHALA: Thousands of Tibetans and foreigners yesterday attended His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teaching on Buddha’s life (Jataka Tales) on the final day of Great Prayer Festival (Tibetan: Monlam Chenmo), which is celebrated as the most important Tibetan Buddhist celebration of the year, held annually as part of the New Year festivities.

The first full moon of the year is also celebrated as the Day of Miracles (Chotrul Duchen) to commemorate the final day of miraculous display by the Buddha and defeated six rival teachers to a contest of miraculous performances in the city of Shravasti in India.

Reading from the Jataka Tales, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said Buddha is the only teacher who said that his teachings should be examined and analysed and not followed merely out of faith.

He said the unique quality of the Tibetan Buddhism is that it is based on ancient India’s Nalanda Buddhist tradition. And that the common thread which binds together all the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Bon religion is this tradition. It invalidates the theory which describes Buddhism as a form of “lamaism”. Like Tibetans, Chinese, Japanese and Koreans also follow the Nalanda tradition which preaches study of Buddha’s teachings and commentaries by Nalanda masters through logic and analysis.

His Holiness said the purpose of Buddha dharma is to get rid of suffering and one must practise the Buddha’s teaching with good motivation.

On world peace, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said lasting peace at every level of society in the world will come only if there is peace and compassion within every human being. “Peace will not come by simply releasing pigeons into the air,” he added.

His Holiness explained that the Great Prayer Festival was established by Je Tsongkhapa more than 600 years ago in Tibet. The annual festival could not be celebrated inside Tibet at times due to difficult circumstances after exile of Tibetans in 1959.