Thousands of Buddhists celebrated on Friday Buddha's Day of Enlightenment or Waisak at the famed Borobudur Temple in Magelang, Central Java.

Comming from all over Indonesia and some from abroad, they met at the Borobudur Temple for the last set of Waisak rituals which began on Tuesday.

Waisak celebrates the birth, the enlightment and the death of Siddharta Gautama who became a Buddha (the enlightened one).

This year's Waisak fell on the 2.547th year according to the Buddhist calendar.

On Tuesday, Buddhist priests took sacred water from the Umbul Jumprit village in Temanggung, Central Java, and a flame called the fire of nature from a natural source in the Central Java town of Grobogan.

They put the water and the flame in the Mendut Temple before taking the elements on a five kilometer procession the the Borobudur temple for the creemony on Thursday.

The Indonesian Buddhists Association (Walubi) organized the ceremony at the Borobudur Temple that began on Thursday night.

Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agiel Hussein Munawar and Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nua Wea were among the guests.

A light rainfall delayed the opening of the cremony, in which devotees were sprinkled with the sacred water. Walubi chairwoman Siti Hartati Murdaya lit the flame of peace which the fire priests had taken from Grobogan.

Devotees, Buddhist priests and the ministers then proceeded with the Pradaksina ritual in which they walked around the temple in the traditional clockwise manner.

On Friday moring, the cremony continued with thousands of Buddhist arriving at the temple to meditate.

The mediation was led by a priest from Thailan Vin Vijano Mahatera from the main alter at the the temple's west side, Antara reported.