Butter Lamp Offering
Since Buddha Shakyamuni attained enlightenment 2,500 years ago and dispelled the darkness of ignorance that obscures the mind's true nature, lamp offerings in Buddhist practices have symbolized his realization.
Each lamp offering celebrates the Buddha's enlightenment and thus is associated with great good fortune.
For Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, a lamp offering also carries the wish to attain buddhahood and the aspiration to recognize the clear light at the time of death,thereby experiencing liberation in that moment.
In this way lamp offerings are associated with transitions in one's life.
Lamp offerings are best made before consecrated representations of fully awakened wisdom, loving-kindness, and compassion.
With its magnificent Buddha rupa, statues of major bodhisattvas, and the stupa containing relics of the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, the main shrine room at KTD offers a most auspicious setting for making lamp offerings.
Here, lamps burn continuously each day, radiating the prayers and aspirations made by numerous sangha members and visitors.
