lumbini temple

Lumbini
The birthplace of loard Buddha , world heritage site , Nepal

INTRODUCTION :
Situated in the foothills of the siwalik range in the district of rupandehi , lumbini , the birthplace of lord Buddha is the first and foremost site of pilgrimage . Buddhist literature mention that the newly born child took seven steps and uttered an epoch making message to the suffering humanity. The beautiful sal grove of lumbini garden was renowned for it's beauty of shady queen of sakya king suddhodana of kapilvastu , on the way to her maternal hometown devadaha, was passing through the lumbini garden . it was the vaisakha poornima ( full moon day ) of 623 BC. While the queen was walking to the garden , took bath in the puskarini. After bath she preceded towards the north , felt labour pain and took support of a brach of a tree and she gave birth to the holy prince .
FOR LUMBINI THE BUDDHA SAID :
“ananda , this (lumbini) place is where the tathagata was born , this is a place , which should be visited and seen by a person of devotion and which would cause awareness and apprehensive nature of impermanence. At this place , ananda, who are on a pilgrimage to (this) shrine , if they should die with devotion in their heart during the course of the pilgrimage , will after (their ) death and dissolution of the body be reborn in a good destination , a fortunate celestial realm” (mahaparinirvana sutta).
LUMBINI : THE PILGRIMAGE .
Today devotees and visitors from all over the world come to lumbini , the timeless place where ancient monuments glorify the birthplace of sakyamuni and bear witness to the record of the noteworthy visits by famous dignitaries , the pilgrims deeply immerse themselves in the serene spiritual atmosphere
of lumbini .
the famous manrya Emperor Asoka guided by his spiritual teacher Upagupta made a pilgrimage to this holy site in 249 BC. He erected a stone pillar bearing an inscription stating clearly Hida Budhe Jate Sakyamuniti (hereSakyamuni Buddha was born). He laid importance to the marker-stone and constructed few other structures to mark the exact birthspot of the Buddha. He worshiped the nativity tree and Puskarini (the holy pond). He also visited other historical sites of Kapilavastu, Ramagrama and Devadaha.
Three famous Chinese pilgrims – tseng tsai (4th century AD ), fa –hsien (5th century AD ) and hiuen –tsang’s travel account gives the detall description c lumbini .he had seen the stump of the nativity tree , a chaity , the asokan pillar , the holy pond puskarini , the telar (oily) River and the source of warm and cool water springs .

King Ripu malla (1312 AD) of Kamali,west Nepal, visited Lumbini and left the mark of his visit engraved on the top of the Asokan pillar ‘Om ani Padme Hum Ripu Malla Ciranjayatu, The association of Lumini with the buddha went slowly to oblivion and the name lumbini gradually changed to rummindei and tries to rupandehi (present name of the district).
The then general khadga shumsher , Governor of palpa and Dr. alois fuhrer , an imminent archaeological surveyor in British india , discovered the Asoka pillar in 1896 . After the pillar was discovered and the famous inscription deciphered , more and more people were interested in the archaeology and history of the site . PC mukharji conducted an excavation in 1899, identified the nativity sculpture as well as some of the structural remains in and around the birthplace . in 1930s, keshar shumsher carried out large – scale excavation at the holy complex of lumbini and coverd up the archaeological site with a view to strengthen the maya devi temple the department of archaeology, Nepal (DoA) undertook the responsibility of conducting excavation , research and conservation since 1972, after the formation of the lumbini development trust (LDT) in 1985, the development activities at lumbini including the excavation and conservation of the holy compelx have been continued by the trust . in 1990s LDT, DoA and japan Buddhist federation excavated the maya devi temple .