Prayer meeting on September

　　　The Ninth Lunar Month Prayer Meeting is also known as “Descension Festival”. It is said that September 22 in Tibetan calendar is the day on which the founder of Buddhism Sakyamuni returned to earth after making preach for his mother in the Palace of Trayastrimsa Heaven, so it is also called “Descension”. Afterwards, in order to commemorate the day and invite Sakyamuni to come to earth again for blessing, every temple will hold Buddhist activity on the day to welcome the Buddha, while religious adherents will pilgrim, turn scripture and come to the temple to ask for blessing.  
     
 

　　During prayer meeting, in addition to chanting sutras and pray in the Great Sutra Hall, all Buddha halls and cultural relics storehouse will be opened on September 22 to all people for viewing and worshiping, which is also known as “displaying treasures” and in fact the rite to worship Buddhist treasures. Most of people coming early in the day are herdsmen from farming and stockbreeding areas, and they usually come by bus. In the past, people used to come by horses. They would arrive at Lushaer on September 20 or 21, and lived in inns or temporary tents there. On the following day, they would come to Ta’er Temple with their kids and elders in the morning after washing rinses. Then they would queue up in the Vajrayana Institute and worship treasures in proper order.
     
　To worship treasures here refers to that the Buddhism officials in the temple take out Tsongkhapa’s cassock and hat as well as his mother’s appliance that are enshrined at the temple, and then several Buddhism officials will hold those items with both hands and put them on the head of religious adherents for while. The rite will be finished in two hours or so, so adherents coming late won’t have such luck.