“From the day the Buddha passed away, your group, with the support of Phaya Asoka
and the wealthy people of Sri Vijaya City, began construction of the *chedi* to enshrine
the relics immediately. During that time, you also decided to build another place next to
it as a symbol for something. This place had a rectangular-shaped spire with a wide
base, built of brick and plastered with stucco in the shape of flowers, animals, and
other local artisan styles.

On all four sides, there were arched doorways where Buddha images were placed in
the posture of the first sermon, but with legs hanging down, carved from white jade to
convey purity. All four images faced the four directions. This spire had a glass wall and
four entrances. To the east, outside the glass wall, there was another small, solitary
spire. Inside, another Buddha image was enshrined, also with legs hanging down, but
not in the posture of the first sermon. The hands were placed on both knees, and it was
carved from dark green granite, facing the east entrance, as if waiting outside, to
symbolize that this Buddha image was still an ordinary person but was waiting to be
born as the Buddha in the future. This place was about 1 kilometer south of Phra
Pathom Chedi. The reason Maha Thera Achita decided to build this place was to
symbolize that four Buddhas had been born in the world. The current Buddha, who
was the fourth, had been born in the Suvarnabhumi land, and another Buddha, Phra Sri
Ariya Metteyya, was waiting to be born in the future. This was conveyed through the
color of the stone, the posture, and the location of the Buddha image outside the wall.
The Phra Pathom Chedi and the spire enshrining the four Buddhas, along with the
small spire outside the wall, took a total of 11 months to complete. The celebration was
scheduled for the 1st day of the 5th month, which coincided with April 13th. Maha
Thera Achita took that date and time as the beginning of the 1st year of the Buddhist
Era, from that time onwards,” Lord Phoche explained.

“April 13th… don’t tell me this is related to the Songkran festival too,” I asked.

“That’s right. This celebration day was taken as the beginning of the Buddhist Era,
which is equivalent to your New Year’s Day. In the ceremony to celebrate the Buddha’s
relics *chedi*, the Brahmin Dona instructed the people to jointly pour water on the
newly built *chedi*.

This water pouring ceremony is a traditional Brahmin custom that has been practiced
regularly to show gratitude and as a way to worship the sacred things they respect. The
general ritual that was originally performed regularly was pouring water on the
*shivalinga* or the deities in the temple, using a small ladle to pour water on the deity.
When the water flowed over the deity, at the base below, there would be small grooves
for the water to flow into a basin in front of the deity. After pouring water on the deity,
they would take the water at the base to keep as sacred water, for mixing in baths or
drinking for good fortune.

But this method of pouring water on a large *chedi* had never been done before. That
day, many people poured water onto the *chedi*, causing the people around the *chedi* to get wet too. Those who went up to pour water were wet when they came
down. Because April is a hot month, when they finished pouring water on the *chedi*,
their bodies and clothes were soaked, so they poured water on each other for fun.
From that day onwards, on New Year’s Day, people would go to the temple to make
merit, pour water on Buddha images and parents, teachers, and elders, as a way to
show gratitude to those who have been kind to them, and pour water on each other for
fun, continuing until the present day,” he explained.

“Wow… I just learned that Songkran is related to the beginning of the Buddhist Era and
the Buddha’s passing,” I commented.

“Some stories may not have information in history because when they started, it was
just a ritual created by a small group of people. But if the story of this small group of
people is beneficial to the way of life of the majority of people, even if this story is just a
ritual that you all organized yourselves, especially the matter of specifying the starting
date of the Buddhist Era, which at that time already had a way of counting days and
times according to the lunar calendar, which is counting in cycles using the twelve
zodiac system, which is a counting system related to astrology. Therefore, this unit of
counting has a cycle that repeats every 12 years. For example, if you were born on the
1st day of the 1st month in the year of the Rat, but if another child is born on the 1st
day of the 1st month in the year of the Rat 12 years later, they would be considered one
cycle apart. Using this method causes historical inaccuracies because when a long time
passes, hundreds or thousands of years, we won’t know when this child was actually
born. This is the reason why the Buddhist Era counting system became a standard and
was widely accepted later, using the year of the Buddha’s passing and the celebration
day of the first *chedi* as the starting point,” he explained.

“That’s how the story is. Lord, did the Buddha’s journey for Achita to follow, along with
making symbols for Buddhism to take root throughout the region, end at
Kosinarayana?” I continued to ask.

“Not yet. I just told you that arriving at Kosinarayana was just a halfway point because
this is Phaya Asoka’s hometown. After traveling for almost a year, the Buddha took this
opportunity to rest from exhaustion and plan the next journey, because from now on, it
would be a journey to major kingdoms with highly developed religions.

The cities he had passed through were mostly not very prosperous. But starting from
Sri Vijaya City, which is near Kosinarayana, which is a densely populated city and a
commercial area, a connection point between the kingdoms in the south, this place was
both a stopover and a meeting point for trading goods. This city was almost 2
kilometers wide and almost 4 kilometers long, had a good economy, and had the
Brahmin Dona, who was famous for his magic and invincibility. Therefore, this city had
many soldiers or warriors who applied to be disciples at the Brahmin Dona’s school.
And this city was also the largest source of casting small bronze deities, used for
worship in homes, which were sold to many kingdoms. Therefore, the Buddha had to
plan carefully before traveling, to avoid conflict,” he explained.

“And what did he do?” I asked.

“In practice, what was done mostly didn’t change much. Hair relics were still buried in
various places deemed suitable, and footprints of the Buddha were carved on stones as
a symbol that the Buddha had been here. And places related to his history were added,
such as his birthplace or the city where he was born, the place of enlightenment, the
place of the first sermon, the first temple, etc. Because Phaya Asoka wanted to remind
future generations that there really was a Buddha here,” he explained.

“Oh… that’s exciting… does that mean I’ll know the locations of the birthplace, the place
of enlightenment, and the place of the first sermon?” I asked immediately.