The Udumbara Flower

According to Buddhist scriptures, the udumbara is a sacred flower that comes from the Buddha’s realms. The flower’s name comes from Sanskrit and means “auspicious flower from heaven.” It is of the purest white, untainted by the colors of the temporal world.

Mahayana Buddhism’s scripture The Lotus Sutra describes it as:

“A mythical flower, blooming once every 3,000 years,
heralding the advent of the King of the Golden Wheel.”

Another Buddhist scripture, Huilin Phonetics and Interpretations, describes it as such:

“The udumbara is the product of ominous and supernatural phenomena; it is a celestial flower that cannot be found in the mundane world. If the King of the Golden Wheel descends to the human world, the flower will manifest following the appearance of this great virtue and blessing.”

In 2005, the udumbara flower was suddenly spotted on Buddha statues in South Korea, at Yongjusa temple in Gyeonggi province and at a temple on Mt. Meru in South Jeolla province. Since then, additional sightings of the udumbara have been reported all over the world.

Shen Yun’s dance The Udumbara’s Bloom celebrates this phenomenon.