We left Pochara, a fortnight after arriving in town to finally make our way to the border with India. We had one more stop on the way first though which was Lumbini, birth place of Siddhārtha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism and better known as The Buddha himself.
The village of Lumbini is tiny, so small in fact that we missed it on the bus and got off a mile further down the dusty road at an even smaller village, with a single guesthouse and a friendly owner. This was not such a bad thing in the end as it was still just as close to the reserve and gave us a good glimpse at traditional Nepali village life without any of the touts and hard sells that are to be found at most tourist spots.
A traditional Nepali village consists mostly of a long straightish road, flanked on both sides by single story mud and cane houses neighboured by three storey concrete and often rather windowless houses. Barbers have little huts on the side of the road just big enough for the barber, a seat and a rusty old mirror. The road is fairly chock a block with cycles and motorbikes which toot at anything in their way, and the odd cycle rickshaw dragging a cargo of people and produce you wouldn't burden an ox with. There's plenty of oxes and buffalo pulling trailers too, with goods and people you wouldn't burden a van with. There are no vans. There are lots of chickens though, and dogs and cows which wander the streets to their hearts content, usually obliging the motorbikes with their doubly loud horns who would have you believe their journey must be of the utmost peril. Trying to make their way between all this 'quiet' village life were two backpackers on old curvy handle bar style bikes, heading into the birthplace reserve.
The reserve is a wonderfully peaceful area of grass, forest and lake, full of birds and other happy creatures and surrounded on all sides by a large wall and railings. It is quite some size, measuring several kilometers in each direction. In the centre of the reserve on an island, are some excavated relics of ancient monasteries. In the middle of these is a building which protects the most important remains on the site - the building where the Buddha is said to have been born, and as legend has it, immediately stood up, took seven steps and made a highly respected statement of some significance. Several archaeological missions have come here from around the world and the general scientific consensus is that this indeed is most likely the Buddha's birthplace.
Inside the new building are the remains of the walls, standing about three feet high now but clearly delineating rooms and doorways and such like. In one of the small rooms is a flat stone which is regarded as the spot of the miraculous debut to the world. There is a raised walkway which guides Pilgrims and the inquisitive around the remains and brings them right up to the spot of most interest where everyone takes a blessing from the wall beside them and a photo of their special moment. Considering the magnitude and religious significance of the site, there is a wonderfully relaxed attitude from the administrators. Everything is right there in front of your nose, there's no enforced distance to keep, no restrictions on photography and no over-hushed sense of reverence required of visitors. We considered how differently things would be run, say, if there was a similar site of Christian significance in the middle of the Vatican and how stifled it would be for Pilgrims.
Outside the building was a stone column, known as Asoka's Pillar, and placed there by the Mauryan king Asoka, as was often his way when visiting such places in the 3rd Century BC. This column is also particularly revered and when we were there it had a group of about 50 worshippers chanting and praying, prostrated to the pillar.
Because the site is of huge significance to the Buddhist community worldwide, many foreign Buddhist societies have paid homage to it by erected monasteries in their own style and practising their own brand of Buddhism in two adjacent sites, known as the east and west monastic zones. These zones have existed now since the 70's with large and small monasteries in various styles, from Cambodia, Burma, China, Thailand, France and several other nations. The most opulent and stunning belongs to Germany. For every monastery already on the site, there seems to be two more in construction and in another few years time it is going to be quite the monastic theme park.
We spent a full day cycling our old style bikes around the site and returned to our guesthouse just before dark for dinner, a beer and bed.
Inside the new building are the remains of the walls, standing about three feet high now but clearly delineating rooms and doorways and such like. In one of the small rooms is a flat stone which is regarded as the spot of the miraculous debut to the world. There is a raised walkway which guides Pilgrims and the inquisitive around the remains and brings them right up to the spot of most interest where everyone takes a blessing from the wall beside them and a photo of their special moment. Considering the magnitude and religious significance of the site, there is a wonderfully relaxed attitude from the administrators. Everything is right there in front of your nose, there's no enforced distance to keep, no restrictions on photography and no over-hushed sense of reverence required of visitors. We considered how differently things would be run, say, if there was a similar site of Christian significance in the middle of the Vatican and how stifled it would be for Pilgrims.
Outside the building was a stone column, known as Asoka's Pillar, and placed there by the Mauryan king Asoka, as was often his way when visiting such places in the 3rd Century BC. This column is also particularly revered and when we were there it had a group of about 50 worshippers chanting and praying, prostrated to the pillar.
Because the site is of huge significance to the Buddhist community worldwide, many foreign Buddhist societies have paid homage to it by erected monasteries in their own style and practising their own brand of Buddhism in two adjacent sites, known as the east and west monastic zones. These zones have existed now since the 70's with large and small monasteries in various styles, from Cambodia, Burma, China, Thailand, France and several other nations. The most opulent and stunning belongs to Germany. For every monastery already on the site, there seems to be two more in construction and in another few years time it is going to be quite the monastic theme park.
We spent a full day cycling our old style bikes around the site and returned to our guesthouse just before dark for dinner, a beer and bed.
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