APPEALS

Lumbini, Birthplace of Lord Buddha, Gets a Much-awaited Facelift

Way back in 1967, the then UNSecretary General U Thant mooted to develop the site as an international pilgrimage and tourism center. Three years later, a 13-nation Lumbini Development Committee was formed in New York and world renowned Japanese architect, Professor Kenzo Tange was asked to make a Master Plan design for the development of Lumbini. After some initial infrastructural work, things came to a standstill and the plan was subject to procrastination. It is only now that a flurry of activity has seized the site. Renewed efforts to give a new look to Buddha's birthplace are on, thanks to an Institute of Engineering (IOE), Pulchowk project approved by UNESCO which is being backed by the Lumbini Development Trust (LDT) and the Nepalese government. The project is demarcated to renovating the nativity site and its surrounding area. The site, which also has the holy Queen Maya Devi's (Buddha's mother) temple has been closed to public and the excavations have been covered by tarp and tin. When the structure is complete, it will display the excavated ruins of the temple complex which was put up in the 3rd century BC.

Lumbini's Significance

It is widely believed that while on her way to her parent's home in Devadaha, Queen Maya Devi after taking bath in a nearby pond, gave birth to her illustrious son in Lumbini gardens catching hold of a drooping branch of a Sal tree in 642 BC. The child immediately took seven steps-from which lotus flowers sprang up —- in each of four directions. The gods Brahma (creator of universe) and Indra (god of rain and king of heaven) received him and together with the four guardian protectors bathed him.

Simultaneously, Nanda and Upananda, caused water to cascade over him. Later, a well was found to have formed there. An old sage, Asita, prophesed that the prince would become a world renouncer if ever he experienced suffering. To ward off this possibility, King Shuddhodana made arrangements for the Prince to wallow in royal luxuries of his palace. However, destiny had to take its own course and the Prince renounced his royal heritage and set off on the path to find the path of enlightenment and salvation. Three hundred years after the Mahaparinirvana, in 249 BC, the famous Mauryan emperor Ashoka, guided by his spiritual teacher, Upagupta, made a pilgrimage to this holy site. He erected a stone pillar in Lumbini gardens bearing an inscription mentioning that the Buddha was born here. He also built the Maya Devi temple complex. Ashoka's partronage gave a strong stimulus to the spread of Buddhism. In the 5th century AD, the Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hsien visited Lumbini and saw the nativity tree, the pathing pond (Puskarni) and the well among other monuments. Another Chinese traveler Hiuen-Tsang visited these in the 7th century AD.

After this, Lumbini somehow got grossly neglected. It was only at the end of the 19th century that an amateur archaeologist Khadga Sumsher rediscovered the Ashokan pillar at Lumbini.. Dr Alois Anton Fuhrer, a German archaeologist working for the British in India, located the exact place of Buddha's birth. In 1899, PK Mukherjee carried out further excavations in the region. In 1961, Debala Mitra of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) did some pioneering work. Her excavations revealed the existence of a brick temple and a sandstone sculpture within the temple itself which depicts the scenes of Buddha's birth. The Nepalese department of archaeology began a scientific excavation in 1971 and in 1992, the department and Japan Buddhist Federation excavated the Maya Devi temple. In 1997, Lumbini was given the prized status of World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Development Efforts

The Master Plan for the development of Lumbini was finalized at the final meeting held at Tokyo in March 1978. The masterplan is to have three zones—the sacred garden where the Asokan pillar stands, remains of ancient monasteries and the temple stand, a monastic zone and a new Lumbini village for tourists. It also envisages the carrying out of archaelogical works scientifically and updating the field data. The plan intends to transform three square miles of flat, empty land into an expression of Buddha's universal message of peace and compassion, landscaping the site and providing it with a museum and research center. The idea is to encourage countries with Buddhist populations such as Japan, Germany, China, South Korea, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand to invest in the project.

In the 18th General Conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhist held in Taiwan in 1992, LDT presented an exhaustive report on Lumbini's development. The programme distributed plots of lands in the monastic enclave in Lumbini. Today, the zone is replenished with monasteries and monuments. Some have already been constructed and some are under construction. Monasteries in the respective national styles of Myanmar, China, Japan, Korea and Thailand are among that are being built. There is also the Lumbini Research Institute, which has an impressive collection of Buddhist literature and a museum. The museum, established with the help of the Indian government, contains Mauryan and Kushana coins, religious manuscripts, terra-cotta fragments and stone and metal sculptures. The Vietnam Buddhist Monsatery, established in 1993, is located at a spacious four-acres tract of land. The Myanmar temple (Lokamani Cula Pagoda) is a gleaming gold and white structure gracefully soaring into the sky. The China temple is a complex of pagodas, prayer rooms and meditation cells. Built by the Buddhist Association of China, the centerpiece at the Zhong Hua Buddist Monastery is a huge statute of the Buddha housed in its main pagoda.Across the road is the Dae Sung Suk Ga Sa Korean temple. The Nepal Buddha temple and the Dharma Swami Maharaja Buddha Vihara are located inside the sacred garden. The Japan Peace Stupa is situated at the northern end of Lumbini. Built by the Nippon Jon Myohoji of Japan, the 42.5-metre tall edifice is visible from a distance. Four different Buddha statues are set into the stupa's dome to face the four cardinal directions. However, many of the work spelt out in the plan remains incomplete. For instance the 33 metre high water tower, the 17 kilometre Asian highway , the proposed cultural center with an auditorium and accommodation for scholars are still to see the light of the day.

Why the Master Plan Has Been Dragging

The implementation of the master plan has not been smooth at all. The plan has been hit by financial crunch. The political instability of Nepal has also adversely affected the plan. The LDT says that even though efforts are on, the 1978 plan would not be completed within the next five years. There is also dissent within the LDT on how to develop Lumbini irrespective of the master plan. Many say that a pilgrimage site needs to be nothing than a place of prayer and veneration. But others say that the site is not attracting enough pilgrims from abroad as there are no guidebooks and very few accommodation available nearby. The area has poor road and air communications, they contend.

Differences apart, the basic problem under which the plan reels is cash constraint. The Nepal government currently allocates around $15,000 a year to the project. The funds from the 13-nation committee are not forthcoming. Although these countries have shown interest in constructing monasteries, no attempt has been made by them to develop the area as a whole. The LDT, therefore, has been depending on Japan Buddhist Federation (JBT) for finance. The political uncertainty has done damage too. The leadership of the Trust changes every time a new government is formed. Nepal has had seven changes of government since 1991. As the master plan is moving at a snail's pace, LDT's new chief Omkar Prasad Gauchan has now taken the help of architects and engineers of IOE and got a plan for developing the nativity site in place. It has received UNESCO's nod. The IOE team, headed by Jiba Raj Pokharel , a conservation architect with a PhD from York University, and the LDT are trying to bring back the old glory of the site. The Rs 70 million IOE project follows the architectural guidelines for such sites. The LDT will pay Rs 30 million and the rest will be paid by the Nepal government. If the work of the IOE project goes on as desired and the master plan is also given an impetus, there is no reason why Buddha's birthplace would not come to life again.

For more information, contact:

Tirtho Banerjee
131, Rabindra Palli
Faizabad Rd
Lucknow 226016
Uttar Pradesh
India