Blessed Wesak Poya.

On Wesak full-moon, Buddhists across the world remember three events believed to have occurred on this same night — the birth of Siddhartha Gautama in Lumbini, his enlightenment under the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, and his parinirvana at Kusinara. One day, three turning points of a single life that changed the course of history in South Asia and far beyond.

Nowhere is this day observed with quite the gravity that it holds in Sri Lanka. The Pali Canon — the earliest written record of the Buddha's teachings — was first set down in writing on this island, at Aluvihara in Matale, in the first century BCE. The Sri Maha Bodhi, just a few minutes from where we stand, grew from a sapling of the original tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment. It is the oldest documented tree in the world, planted in 288 BCE.

For more than two thousand three hundred years, this tree has been watched over without interruption. On Wesak night, the pilgrims arrive in the tens of thousands — white-clad, candle-bearing, walking quietly under a full moon that has shone on every Wesak before. Our home here in Anuradhapura sits within walking distance of that gathering.

If you are here today, in the Sacred City — or you are far away and remembering it — we wish you a quiet, considered, and luminous Wesak. May the next year bring you closer to whatever path you walk.