Sacred Land

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So, next we went south- right down south to just a few kilometres from the Indian border. As you can probably imagine, it was BOILING hot!!! I don't know how people in India can stand it!

Most people who I had spoken to had said that Lumbini is a fairly empty and non-descript place, which I guess in one way is quite true. The village itself is just like any other village, and there's really not much to point it out as being the birthplace of Buddha.

The main attraction in Lumbini is 'The Sacred Garden', an area that has been renovated to commemorate the exact birthplace of Gautama the Buddha. As a garden, it is very beautiful, quiet and well-kept; but the feature that I enjoyed about it the most was it's symbolic significance. In the garden, there a temple called the Maya Devi Temple, containing ruins dating back to the 5th century BC, and a large stone that marks the spot where Maya Devi gave birth to Buddha. It was quite funny, because as we were standing there looking at the stone, a big white rat came out- I wonder if theres any significance to that?!?! Its an extremely interesting place to be in, more so because of the constant trickle of pilgrims who visit to pay their respects.

Outside of the temple is a really lovely garden where large trees have Tibetan prayer flags strung across them. There is also a pond called 'The Sacred Pond', where Maya Devi was said to have bathed before she gave birth. One thing that I found interesting about this place was the way pilgrims treated it. During his life, Buddha made it clear that he id not want to be worshipped as a god, yet so many people would go down to the waters of the lake and bless themselves with its waters and pray at it. I guess alot of the pilgrims are actually Hindu, which would explain why!

After going to the Sacred Garden, we headed out (in a rickshaw, because it was so blisteringly hot!!) to monasteries surrounding the area. Some of them are so exquisite! There are monasteries basically built by groups from all around the world- from an architectural point of view it was very interesting to see the different styles. The German monastery was particularly beautiful, with paintings all over the ceiling and statues peppering the surrounding gardens.

So, all in all, my visit to Lumbini was very fruitful! It was just getting back to Katmandu that would prove to be a bit of a problem!

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