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Lumbini,
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Lumbini is the place where the Buddha, known as the Tathagata* was born.
It is the place which should be visited and seen by a person of devotion
and which should cause awareness and apprehension of the nature of
impermanence.' * Tathagata - One who has found the Truth.
The birthplace of the Gautama Buddha, Lumbini, is the Mecca of every
Buddhist, being one of the four holy places of Buddhism. It is said in the
Parinibbana Sutta that Buddha himself identified four places of future
pilgrimage: the sites of his birth, enlightenment, first discourse, and
death. All of these events happened outside in nature under trees. While
there is not any particular significance in this, other than it perhaps
explains why Buddhists have always respected the environment and natural
law.
Lumbini is situated at the foothills of the Himalayas in modern Nepal. In
the Buddha's time, Lumbini was a beautiful garden full of green and shady
Sal trees (Shorea). The garden and its tranquil environs were owned by
both the Shakyas and Kolias clans. King Suddhodana, father of Gautama
Buddha was of the Shakya dynasty belonging to the Kshatriya or the warrior
caste. Maya Devi, his mother, gave birth to the child on her way to her
parent's home in Devadaha while taking rest in Lumbini under a sal tree in
the month of May in the year 642 B.C. The beauty of Lumbini is described
in Pali and Sanskrit literature. Maya Devi it is said was spellbound to
see the natural grandeur of Lumbini. While she was standing, she felt
labor pains and catching hold of a drooping branch of a Sal tree, the
baby, the future Buddha, was born.
The bas relief above depicts Maya Devi with her right
hand holding on to a branch of a sal tree with a newborn child standing
upright on a lotus petal, shedding an oval halo, around his head, while
two celestial figures pour water and lotuses from vessels of heaven as
indicated by the delineation of clouds. This nativity scene was installed
by Malla Kings of the Naga dynasty from about the 11th to 15th Century in
the Karnali zone of Nepal.
In 249 BC, when the Emperor Ashoka visited Lumbini it was a flourishing
village. Ashoka constructed four stupas and a stone pillar with a figure
of a horse on top. The stone pillar bears an inscription which, in English
translation, runs as follows: "King Piyadasi (Ashoka), beloved of devas,
in the 20 year of the coronation, himself made a royal visit, Buddha
Sakyamuni having been born here, a stone railing was built and a stone
pillar erected to the Bhagavan having been born here, Lumbini village was
taxed reduced and entitled to the eight part".
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Incredible Real India - Destination List of Nepal
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