He had been meditating for 49 days, sitting crossed-legged under a Bodhi tree at Buddha Gaya in Northern India. Siddhartha Gautama’s mind suddenly became clear, and understanding began to emerge. He could see his past lives, slowly at first, and then they began to multiply, until he could see them in the thousands.

As Siddhartha Gautama continued meditating he saw the cycle of life and death, how beings change from one form to another, across different levels of consciousness. And finally, he was able to grasp the concept of infinity, as well as the origins and causes of human suffering. With his mind completely purified he was transformed, he was something beyond human. He had reached Enlightment, or nirvana, an unearthly state of mind between physical existence and death.

Prince Siddhartha Gautama was now Gautama Buddha.

Today, 19 May, is when Buddhists in Cambodia celebrate the Visak Bochea, informally called Buddha’s birthday, and it is a national public holiday. The event is one of the most important in the Buddhist calendar, and falls on the first day of the full moon in the fifth month of the year.

To celebrate monks and other Buddhist’s come together in pagodas to pray and make offerings to the Buddha. Monks will also gather fruit and alms and chant certain sutras. Many Buddhists will attend a mass celebration at Wat Oudong, perched on a hilltop 40km north of the capital Phnom Penh, and one of the most historically relevant and architecturally complex temples in Cambodia.

Edited from The Cambodia Daily (19-5-08)