KATHINA

What is Kathina?

Kathina-Robe Offering is a wonderful Buddhist tradition that has been preserved for thousands of years since the Buddha’s time. It is a practice established by the Buddha permitting the lay community to make a respectful offering of robes to monks who have spent three months during Buddhist Lent purifying their mind and body. The objective as envisioned by the Buddha was to foster harmony in the monastic community and to allow virtuous monks with torn robes to receive new sets. The fruit from this good deed is tremendous—as the Lord Buddha expounded in one of His teachings that sanghadāna, the offering of DĀNA, yields positive consequences for the donor.

In other words, those who wish to acquire a great source of merit should perform wholesome deeds with the monastic community.

Why Kathina?

The Vinaya, or the monastic code of discipline, states that Buddhist temples can organize a Kathina Ceremony only once a year. Additionally, it specifies that the organization of Kathina is restricted to a time period of one month after the final day of Buddhist Lent, from the 1st day of the 11thwaning moon to the 15th day of the 12th waxing moon. Each temple can select a day within this period to organize their respective Kathina Ceremony.

When does this ceremony happen?

Every year on the first Sunday of November, the Kathina-Robe Offering Ceremony is organized at the Dhammakaya Temple, where over thousands of venerable monks and novice monks who have earnestly observed the Buddhist Lent for the past three months will act as the fertile fields of merit for thousands of loyal supporters in Thailand and abroad in attendance. Therefore, we cordially invite everyone to come join us in the Kathina-Robe Offering.