Buddha Purnima 2017: Here’s how people are celebrating Gautam Buddha’s birthday worldwide

Buddha Purnima is celebrated by devotees of Gautam Buddha worldwide, commemorating his birthday. The festival falls in the Hindu month of Vaisakha on the day of full moon. Also known as Vesak or Buddha Day and Buddha Jayanti, this year, the festival falls on May 10. The festival is widely celebrated in many South-Asian countries with utmost solemnity and devotion. (Source: Express photo by Partha Paul)

Although celebrated across the world as the day Buddha was born, it is also known as the day he attained salvation or Nirvana under the Mahabodhi tree at Bodh Gaya.(Source: Express photo by Partha Paul)

Devotees celebrate the day by preaching and discussing the life and teachings of Lord Buddha. (Source: Express photo by Partha Paul)

A monk helps to show Buddha's relic to the devotees on the occasion of Buddha Jayanti at Maha Bodhi Society in Kolkata (Source: Express photo by Partha Paul)

Devotees gathered at Maha Bodhi Society in Kolkata to offer prayers.(Source: Express photo by Partha Paul)

A monk looks at the casket that adorns the relic of Gautam Buddha. Devotees wear white clothes, pray, meditate and chant from the scriptures, following which, they make fruits and sweets’ offerings to the Buddha idols.(Source: Express photo by Partha Paul)

They offer worship and decorate Buddha’s idols with flowers, chant from the scriptures, meditate, eat simple, vegetarian food and take park in charity by donating food, clothes, shelter and money to the needy. (Source: Express photo by Partha Paul)

According to legends, after his birth, an astrologer named Asita visited Suddhodana, the king and father of Buddha (then known as Siddhartha) and prophesied that the young prince will grow up to denounce all wealth and luxuries to become a holy man or become a great king — all depending on the real life that he saw outside the royal palace. (Source: Express photo by Partha Paul)

Multicolored lights on at Gateway of India on the occasion of Buddha Purnima on Wednesday morning. (Source: Express photo by Nirmal Harindran)

It is widely believed as per Theravada Tripitaka, that Buddha was born on this day in Lumbini, now known as Nepal approximately around the year 563 BCE. (Source: PTI)

Buddhist monks across the globe take part in prayers arranged by devotees from Vietnam, under the Bodhi tree on the occasion of Buddha Purnima in Bodh Gaya, Bihar. (Source: PTI)

A family offer prayers in front of a statue of Buddha during Buddha Purnima in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (source: AP)

Monks wearing magnificent costumes and masks perform prayers before the Thangka, or traditional painting of Lord Buddha, is unveiled at a Tibetan temple during Wesak day celebration in Ipoh, Malaysia. (Source: AP)

Buddhist devotee throws water to the foot of banyan tree at Shwedagon pagoda during the full-moon day of Kasone, in Yangon, Myanmar. (Source: AP)

Cambodian students offer prayer to mark the Buddhist Visak Bochea at Oudong hill, in Kandal province, northwest of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (source: AP)

Buddhists light butter lamp during Buddha Purnima at Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal. (Source: AP)

Sri Lankan Buddhist devotee take part in religious observances at a temple to mark Vesak full moon day or Buddha Purnima in Colombo, Sri Lanka. (Source: AP)

A South Korean pours water on a small statue of Buddha to celebrate Buddha's birthday at the Jogye temple in Seoul, South Korea. (Source: AP)

Buddhist believers queue for pouring water to a Buddha statue during an event to celebrate the birthday of Buddha in Hong Kong. (Source: AP)