Expert: Laurie McLauglin - 5/14/2009

Question
Is there any Buddhist equivalent to a baptism or a blessing for a new baby?

Answer
Hello, Emmy -

Thank you for letting me answer your question.

To the best of my knowledge, in my eight years of studying Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism, there is no Buddhist equivalent for a baptism.

There are two reasons I believe this. First off, I have never heard of or seen a Buddhist baptism.  Secondly, when Buddha taught, it was to people who were able to make decisions as to whether what the Buddha said resonated with and made sense to them or not.

Obviously, babies cannot make that decision, so I suspect since Buddha did not want people to follow his teachings blindly, he did not institute a baptism ceremony into Buddhism.

However, that does not mean that different ceremonies for blessing babies have not been developed over the years. For example, in the Tibetan Mahayana tradition I follow, Venerable Thubten Chodren describes such a ceremony on her website. But these ceremonies I am fairly certain were not developed or taught by The Buddha Himself but sprang up later.

I hope this gives you some help help. Don't hesitate asking any follow up questions.