In the 5-6 century BC, Siddhartha Gautama- aka the Lord Buddha- was supposedly born in LUMBINI. His mother Queen Mayadevi, wife of King Suddodhana, ruler of Kapilavastu, seems to have given birth to him under a Bodhi tree, while she was on a journey from her husband's capital to her family home in Devadaha. While she died giving birth, Siddhartha immediately made seven steps over lotus flowers and then fell to ground and was a regular baby. Several monasteries and stupas were built in that area by Buddha’s disciples during the centuries to come. The Mongolian invasion at the end of the XIV century destroyed the whole area and put the birthplace into darkness. Rediscovered by Europeans in the XIX century, it only regained its meaningful status in the 70’s because the Nepali government together with the United Nations designed a master plan for a religious park. Therefore you find all around that area different temples, monasteries and stupas from different countries.
It seems logical that we wanted to see this place, so we took the bus for a long journey to the south.
What stroke us most is the peace and calmness around this park. Maybe this was due to the early hour we walked through it (7 o’clock) or the spirit of the “enlightened” really wanders there around. All in all we walked- huge mistake, we should have hired a bike- for 5 hours in the burning sun and suffered only for your viewing pleasure.
Although the village of Lumbini – one street literally and one more in construction-is not spectacular, we guessed that in a few years time this will be a very touristy place.
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