The Greater Lumbini Area Religious and Archaeological Sites Explore the Greater Lumbini Area
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© Mani Lama © Mani Lama © Mani Lama © Mani Lama THE GREATER LUMBINI AREA RELIGIOUS AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES EXPLORE THE GREATER LUMBINI AREA Lumbini can be reached by a 30 During the winter months the Terai Most hotels and guesthouses for minute local flight from Nepal’s is often covered by fog, the climate all tastes are located to the East of capital Kathmandu to Bhairahawa. is damp, and the temperature can Lumbini Protected Area. Pilgrims SagraHAWA The 280 kilometre journey by road drop to single figures. can stay at one of the numerous >page 18 takes approximately 8 hours. The monasteries. nearest international border crossing The most pleasant times of the NigliHAWA to India is at Bhairahawa - Sunauli. year are the months of February Renting a vehicle is the best way CHAtraDEI >page 16 and November. On a clear day, it is to access the archaeological sites > page 19 The climate of the region is dictated possible to look northwards across within a day but sportive travellers araurakot > page 17 by the monsoon. The summers the plain, past the foothills of the might use bicycles. TILAURAKOT can be incredibly hot and humid, Siwaliks and see the Himalayas > page 14 reaching temperatures of over 40oC. rising in the distance. tauliHAWA KUDAN DoHANI > page 20 > page 13 GotiHAWA 32 KM to > page 21 ramagrama The following itineraries start and end at Lumbini: >page 23 karma >page 12 à itinerary 1 itinerary 2 itinerary 4 Lumbini tour, including the Sacred Tilaurakot including brief stops in Vist all sites west of Lumbini LUMBINI >page 10 Garden, the Maya Devi Temple, Karma and Dohani. 110 km round trip, 8+ hours SISANYA Monastic Zones, Lumbini Museum 63 km round trip, 4+ hours >page 22 SaCRED and the Peace Stupa. itinerary 5 garDEN You can either walk from the north itinerary 3 Ramagrama entrance to the Sacred Garden or Tilaurakot including Kudan and 64 km, 5+ hours use rickshaws or rented bicycles. Gotihawa Ramagrama is only an 8 km round half to full day 70 km round trip, 6+ hours trip from the main highway between india Lumbini and Kathmandu. 0 1 2 3 4 5 10km 3 INTRODUCTION TO THE GREATER LUMBINI AREA © Mani Lama © Mani Lama © Durham University © UNESCO Chair, Durham University © Mani Lama Most of the current population of the More than 20 monasteries from as many Transportation within the GLA Hindu pilgrims in the Banganga River on full moon days Lotus in the circular pond around the region are Hindu and Muslim. countries have been established in Lumbini. Sacred Garden in Lumbini The Greater Lumbini Area (gla) by several major rivers. These rivers practised small scale agriculture, and comprises the three Nepali districts flow southwards from the Siwalik had developed a natural resistance of Rupandehi, Nawalparasi and Hills before eventually merging with to malaria. From the mid-19th century Kapilavastu, and is centred on the the Ganges River. The silts that are the forests of the Terai were slowly unesco World Heritage Site of deposited by annual floodwaters cleared for agriculture and industry, Lumbini. The gla contains hundreds from the rivers, are what make the and archaeological sites associated of archaeological sites, some of region so agriculturally rich, and why with Buddhism were rediscovered. which are directly associated with people have been drawn to live here the life of the Buddha. Key sites for millennia. In 1967, the un Secretary-General U include Lumbini, where Lord Buddha Thant initiated a major international was born, Tilaurakot-Kapilavastu, the Whilst the Terai was the heartland campaign to develop and protect city in which he spent the first 29 and origin of Buddhism, most of the Lumbini. This prompted the Nepali years of his life, and Ramagrama, one current population of the region are government to establish the Lumbini of the original eight nirvana stupas Hindu and Muslim. In the eighteenth Development Trust (ldt) and today, which house his ashes. Tilaurakot and nineteenth centuries, the the ldt and the Department of and Ramagrama are on the tentative Terai was sparsely inhabited. The Archaeology share responsibilities list for unesco World Heritage dense forest and jungle acted as an for the management and protection Status. informal buffer between the British of the historic sites. © Mani Lama © Mani Lama Raj and the Hill States to the north. A sarus crane in the sanctuary near the Local buses and ox carts still dominate the rural roads The gla lies within Nepal’s western The main population living in the World Peace Pagoda Terai, a flat alluvial plain bisected Terai were Tharu. Local communities 4 5 PIlgRIMAGE © Mani Lama © Antoine Roulet © Ira Block © Mani Lama Dharmodaya Sabha Monastery Pilgrims at the Sacred Garden in Lumbini Nuns prostrating on the path leading to Ligthing of butter lamps the Sacred Garden. When the Buddha was approaching pilgrimage to the region was that the journeys of these pilgrims was the end of his life, he advised his of Asoka, the Mauryan Emperor, in in many ways the genesis of the followers that there were four great 249 bce. He erected at least three archaeology of Buddhism in the places of pilgrimage associated pillars at Lumbini, Gotihawa and subcontinent. with his journey: Lumbini, where Niglihawa marking the birthplace of © Mani Lama he was born; Bodh Gaya, where he two Buddhas and the resting place After the rediscovery of many of Inside the Tara Foundation Monastery achieved enlightenment; Sarnath, of a third. these sites in the late 19th century, where he preached his first sermon; pilgrims began to slowly flow and Kushinagara, where he would However, much of our knowledge back to Lumbini and other sites. achieve his “Great Passing Away” or of pilgrimage and the sites in the U Thant’s desire to see Lumbini Mahaparinirvana. area is derived from the records developed now sees the gla visited of two Chinese pilgrims, Faxian by over one million people per Since then, Buddhists have been and Xuanzang. They travelled year, from Nepal and abroad. Many undertaking pilgrimages to the gla throughout much of South Asia, of these people are on personal in order to worship in the footsteps including the Terai, in the fifth and spiritual journeys, while others are © Mani Lama of Lord Buddha. We now know seventh centuries ce respectively. here to learn more about the history Inside the Korean Temple that the first shrine at Lumbini was They left detailed descriptions and values of Buddhism. constructed almost immediately of sites they visited and their after his death. The first recorded location in the landscape. Tracing 6 7 HISTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH © UNESCO Chair, Durham University © Department of Archaeology, Government of Nepal © Department of Archaeology, GoN © Mani Lama © Charles Allen View of the 2016 archaeological excavations at Kudan Excavations inside the Maya Devi Temple in the 1990s. The Maya Devi Temple before excavations Asokan inscription on the Lumbini pillar The Asokan Pillar soon after the discovery in the 1990s of the early Brahmi inscription in 1896. Lumbini was “rediscovered” in 1896 Asoka’s inscription. The translation of the site, and structures to and the Archaeological Survey of understand their development over Japanese Government, including when Dr Führer, Archaeological of the inscription clearly identified the north and west of the city. India, under the direction of Debala time. archaeological excavations, Surveyor of the Indian the site as Lumbini. The historic Mukherji was convinced that the Mitra. She courted controversy conservation of monuments and Northwestern Provinces and Oudh descriptions of Chinese pilgrims remains at the site of Tilaurakot by concluding that Tilaurakot was Whilst a Japanese team from Rissho development of management Circle, was invited by General were used to identify further sites represented Kapilavastu. He again no older than the second century University exposed a series of plans. This work undertaken by Khadga Shumsher J.B. Rana, the in the area, linking Tilaurakot with used the descriptions of Faxian and bce, and thus could not be ancient structures at Tilaurakot between the Department of Archaeology Governor of Palpa, to undertake ancient Kapilavastu. Xuanzang to support his theory. Kapilavastu. 1967 and 1977, major international (Government of Nepal), Lumbini archaeological investigations interventions began in the 1990s. Development Trust and Durham close to his camp. Together they In 1899, P.C. Mukherji of the Whilst most people accepted In 1972 the Nepali archaeologist The Japanese Buddhist Federation University now encompasses identified four mounds, on the Archaeological Survey of India Tilaurakot as Kapilavastu, there B.K. Rijal began to expose and conducted a large scale excavation Tilaurakot, Kudan, Araurakot, largest of which stood a temple surveyed and excavated the ruins remained some doubt, stemming restore monuments at Lumbini, of the Maya Devi Temple, exposing Ramagrama and numerous other dedicated to the river goddess at Tilaurakot. Mukherji recognized from differences in the descriptions identifying the first pre-Mauryan the brickwork that is visible today. sites in the gla. Through this, Rupa Devi. Führer re-identified the the wooded mound as the site of given by the two Chinese pilgrims. structure north of the Asokan The Italian archaeologist Giovanni remains of the earliest Buddhist statue of Rupa Devi as representing a rectangular fort protected by Pillar. He was followed by Tara Verardi reexcavated the stupa and shrine at Lumbini were discovered, Maya Devi giving birth to Gautama a wall and ditch. He cut sections Little archaeological work was Nanda Mishra, who conducted pillar at Gotihawa, as well as the and the establishment of Tilaurakot Buddha. Adjacent to the temple through the fortification wall and carried out in the Terai during the more systematic excavations at small settlement mound at Pipri. pushed back to at least 800bce.