Kathina celebration 2019

We have the pleasure of inviting you to celebrate the Kathina Season alms offering day with us at Tilorien Monastery on Saturday 19th October.

A Kathina ceremony is a very special occasion for coming together as a Buddhist community to share in the Dhamma and recollect the Triple Gem. It is centred around celebrating the mutually supportive relationship between monastics and lay people, and cultivating joy through generosity.

The word ‘kathina’ refers to a type of wooden frame used to make robes in the time of the Buddha, which is still used in some monasteries. The month after Vassa (monastic rains residence) is referred to as the Kathina season. This is a period for monastics to mend and sew new robes, and traditionally the lay community would offer robe-cloth for this purpose.

In accordance with the monastic code, a full Kathina ceremony requires five, or more fully ordained monastics to be present in the monastery during Vassa. However, our smaller Kathina season alms offering day, is a wonderful way for our young community to mark the end of Vassa and give a similar opportunity to lay people to express their gratitude for the spiritual support the Sangha offers, by providing requisites and other support for the monastery.

The program for the day will be as follows:

If you would like to come for the ceremony, but live too far away and would like to stay overnight, please let us know a.s.a.p. If enough people are interested we can rent a holiday house near to the Monastery for that purpose. If you prefer to rent your own accomodation, please see our visitor’s page for more information.