Mani Raj Gole
Like Jerusalem is to Christians and Mecca is to Muslims, Lumbini, the birthplace of the Lord Buddha, is one of the holiest places for Buddhists.

Like Jerusalem is to Christians and Mecca is to Muslims, Lumbini, the birthplace of the Lord Buddha, is one of the holiest places for Buddhists.

Located in the South-Western region of Nepal, it evokes a kind of holy sentiment to the millions of Buddhists all around the world. More than 400,000 Buddhists and non Buddhists visit Lumbini every year.

Dec 6, Saturday 2014, the day scheduled for Lumbini visit, I was really excited. As planned I was informed to reach Deerwalk Office at 4:00 in the morning. It was cold morning and Deepak Dai was in a happy mood and fully prepared for the 9 hour drive. We left the office at 4:00 AM and all the visiting team were picked up along with our special guest, Jeff.

We left the valley at 5:00 AM morning. After 3 hours drive we took our breakfast, we played cards on the way and after an hour drive we were dropped at Trishuli river beach for a short break where the real fun of the visit started. We took some drinks and snacks there. The river side was a beautiful place for the short brake. One of the best parts of the break was the glass hitting game.

At around 2:00 pm we reached Lumbini. Prabhat Dai, Our helpful local guide was very experienced, managed food, lodging and traveling. We hired one minivan and motorbikes for internal visit of the historical area. First visit was the World Peace Pagoda, then was ‘The great Lotus Stupa’ with majestic garden filled with statues, showing different life stage of Lord Buddha. We visited The Tibetan monastery. Impressive Tibetan architecture was placed all over the building. This monastery has the old murals, interesting paintings on its walls and a large bronze image of Lord Buddha.

At last we visited Maya Devi Temple, mother of Lord Buddha. Temple was built in the 19th century, which enshrines the traditional site of the Buddha’s birth. The site, described as a beautiful garden in the Buddha’s time, still retains its legendary charm and beauty, long lines of colorful prayer flags are strung between trees. Monks carry prayers and mantras heavenward as they flap on the breeze all around the courtyard.
It was full moon day, we entered the temple, there the environment was very peaceful. We took chance to see sandstone sculpture inside the temple, which depicted the scenes of the Buddha’s birth.

Overall, Lumbini visit was one of the memorable and exciting ones. The best part of the visit was that I got some answers on how and why Buddhism was followed by millions of people from the past era. Philosophical and spiritual Buddhist system and ethics is easy to follow and implement. The ethics includes peace; refrain from killing living things, from stealing, from lying, and from taking intoxicants. Certainly those spirits and feelings will enlighten us.
We took rest that day at Lumbini, and returned back to Kathmandu on Sunday, 7th Dec.