Our next stop was Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautama Siddhartha Buddha. We had rattling local busses, first from Sauraha to Bhairawa and from there to Lumbini.
The village is two busstops, a parking lot and a street with hotels but it also has a very important religious site; a Buddhist pilgrimspark. We stepped out at "Main Bazar" and settled down in Lumbini Guest House. Chitwan had been hot but somehow Lumbini managed to top it with daily temperatures rising over +40 degrees in the shade. A bit exhausting as there is electricity for ceilingfans only a few hours per day.
Lumbini used to have numerous ancient monastries and stupa's but unfortunately they have also been destroyed a few times. You can still find some ruins from as early as year 300 B.C. but one needs a lot of imagination to recreate the towns glorydays.
The bricks of "Maya Devi Temple" have been sealed under a protective dome as it is supposed to be the exact place where Maya Devi gave birth to Gautama Siddhartha in 563 B.C.
Other attractions in the "park" are numerous monastries recently built by other Buddhist countries, blooming flower trees, a pond with tortoises and meditationplatforms in the sacred garden and souvinier sellers overloaded with religious items like strings of prayerbeads from the sacred Bodhi-tree.
We took a nice walk through the sacred garden and sat down near an enormous Bodhi-tree, hanged full with prayerflags, where a very young girl was meditating, doing prayers and blessing other devotees. This sacred tree is the kind under which Siddhartha became the Buddha (The enlightened one) after 49 days of meditation.
It 's funny to see that also Hindus come here to do their puja (offer and prayer) as they believe Buddha was an incarnation of Vishnu and they worship Maya Devi as a Mother Goddess.
After the walk we had a two hour bicyclerickshaw ride to see most of the temples.
The village is two busstops, a parking lot and a street with hotels but it also has a very important religious site; a Buddhist pilgrimspark. We stepped out at "Main Bazar" and settled down in Lumbini Guest House. Chitwan had been hot but somehow Lumbini managed to top it with daily temperatures rising over +40 degrees in the shade. A bit exhausting as there is electricity for ceilingfans only a few hours per day.
Another ¨enlightened¨ one
Lumbini used to have numerous ancient monastries and stupa's but unfortunately they have also been destroyed a few times. You can still find some ruins from as early as year 300 B.C. but one needs a lot of imagination to recreate the towns glorydays.
The bricks of "Maya Devi Temple" have been sealed under a protective dome as it is supposed to be the exact place where Maya Devi gave birth to Gautama Siddhartha in 563 B.C.
Maya Devi Temple and bath
Other attractions in the "park" are numerous monastries recently built by other Buddhist countries, blooming flower trees, a pond with tortoises and meditationplatforms in the sacred garden and souvinier sellers overloaded with religious items like strings of prayerbeads from the sacred Bodhi-tree.
Bodhi-tree
We took a nice walk through the sacred garden and sat down near an enormous Bodhi-tree, hanged full with prayerflags, where a very young girl was meditating, doing prayers and blessing other devotees. This sacred tree is the kind under which Siddhartha became the Buddha (The enlightened one) after 49 days of meditation.
It 's funny to see that also Hindus come here to do their puja (offer and prayer) as they believe Buddha was an incarnation of Vishnu and they worship Maya Devi as a Mother Goddess.
After the walk we had a two hour bicyclerickshaw ride to see most of the temples.
Spinning the prayers silently into air
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