This is the `Triple Blessed Festival` and is considered as the holiest of the holy Buddhist festivals. On this day in different years of his life, Lord Buddha took birth, achieved Enlightenment and passed away attaining Nirvana, all these three important events celebrated in the festival of Saga Dawa.

Lord Buddha was born in Lumbini in Nepal to King Sudhodhna and Queen Maha Maya of the Sakya Clan around 560 BC. He was named Siddhartha and his parents took all the pains to make his life comfortable and keep him ensconced from the miseries of the world. At the age of twenty-nine, realization dawned upon Prince Siddhartha that all the worldly pleasures were transient and unreal and that the ultimate truth lay elsewhere. He renounced the world wandering for many years in search of the truth. Ultimately he reached Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh, where he meditated under the Bodhi tree and attained Enlightenment at the age of thirty five. Buddha, the Enlightened One, left for his heavenly abode at the age of eighty-one at Kusinara on attaining Nirvana or deliverance into bliss.

At Gangtok, a highlight of Saga Dawa is the procession carrying the Holy books of the teachings of Buddha from the Tsuklakhang Monastery in the Palace around the town.

This festival is held on the full moon of the 4th month of the Buddhist calendar. The time is around the end of May and early June.