Start-Up Koan

–Breaking from my 2017 visit to Mongolia to flash forward to my 2023 return trip to Nepal–

In my earlier blog posts, I shared my 2009 explorations of Bodh Gaya (where Siddhartha Guatama attained enlightenment; see https://startupkoan.com/2012/08/04/pilgrimage-part-i/) and Sarnath (where Siddhartha as the “awakened one” or “Buddha” gave his first teaching of the Dharma to his companions; see https://startupkoan.com/2012/08/14/pilgrimage-part-ii/). Bodh Gaya and Sarnath are both located in northeast India and represent 2 of the 4 most important Buddhist pilgrimage sites in the world. The Buddha spent most of his adult life traveling through this region and ultimately died in Kushinagar en route to the location of his birth in what is today the town of Lumbini. Not surprisingly, Kushinagar and Lumbini represent the other 2 most important Buddhist pilgrimage sites. While Kushinagar is also located in northeast India, Lumbini is located in a dry, savannah-like region of southern Nepal which is about a 2-hour flight from Kathmandu.

In April 2023, I returned to Nepal nearly 15-years after my initial visit there. One of the first things I noticed this time when exiting Kathmandu Tribhuvan International Airport was a large statue of the seated Buddha bearing a tagline that said: “Nepal – the Birthplace of the Buddha”. I don’t recall seeing this statue back in 2008, so it was strangely prescient to see this on my return trip to Nepal. Although the primary purpose of my 2023 trip to Nepal was to go on a 10-day trek to Everest Base Camp, I had also planned to visit the actual location of the “birthplace of the Buddha”. It was tricky to budget my time in order to coordinate the logistics of getting back from the EBC region to Kathmandu in order to make the domestic flight to Lumbini, but I was able to pull it off despite the chronic delays and other disruptions that impact travel in Nepal. My time in Lumbini would be short (2 days), but I was excited and looking forward to exploring this sacred site — despite my tired legs which would need to quickly recover in order to make this a “walking only” pilgrimage.

Lumbini is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and I learned that after the town received this designation (and the money that was awarded in conjunction with this), the town leaders launched an ambitious plan to develop Lumbini into a major religious tourist destination which could be marketed throughout the Buddhist world via enticing travel packages. As part of these plans, Buddhist countries (and other countries which wanted to participate) were encouraged to build their own temples, monasteries, and retreats in Lumbini which would reflect their cultural origins and Buddhist traditions. A long canal was built so that boats could ferry visitors from the far north of Lumbini’s pilgrimage district (where the Peace Pagoda stands) down towards the pilgrimage focal point, the Maya Devi Temple. From there, pilgrims and tourists could walk or be transported by car, tuk-tuk, or bus (as was planned in the future) to the various Buddhist structures that were built in the surrounding area.

Through the entreaties by Lumbini’s town leaders for other Buddhist and European countries to contribute resources, labor, and money to this development plan, a “United Nations” of the Buddhist world has been constructed today alongside the flanks of the central canal. There are massive temples, monasteries, shrines, pagodas, and stupas everywhere. Each of these buildings are impeccably designed with an authenticity that reflects their Buddhist country or tradition of origin. Furthermore, all the buildings have been grouped together on either side of the canal according to their respective Buddhist affiliations. If one stands at the Maya Devi Temple and looks north towards the Peace Pagoda in the hazy distance, one can see that all the Theravadan Buddhist temples and monasteries are found on the right side of the canal. This is obvious given the Thai/Laotian/Cambodian/Sri Lankan architecture of the temples and stylistic motifs of the buildings along with the saffron-colored robes of the monks. Off to the left side of the canal, one can see the temples and monasteries of the Mahayana traditions. These buildings all shared pronounced Tibetan and Mongolian thematic elements (like the Snow Lion, stupa & wheel designs) and the tell-tale signs of the maroon-colored robes of the monks milling around there. Sprinkled on the perimeter of the Mahayana-side of the canal are also buildings and temples belonging to Vietnamese, Chinese, Singaporean, and Japanese Buddhist orders.

The town planners of the Lumbini pilgrimage district are still in the process of paving the roads and crafting the tree-lined walking paths that are to intersect all these buildings and allow for easy ingress and egress from the Maya Devi Temple complex to these surrounding sites. Unfortunately, there may be some money issues plaguing the project and it will likely take many more years until the full vision of this project is realized (including the buildout of the necessary lodging, restaurants, and transport options) so that Lumbini will become a must-see destination for pilgrims and tourists from around the world.

The purpose of any pilgrimage to Lumbini is to enter the Maya Devi Temple and observe the sacred relics found inside. Because of the constant foot traffic of pilgrims and the destruction and disrepair of the original (and subsequent) brick temples and monasteries which had been constructed to house these relics over the millennia, a modern building has been built over the ruins of the temple’s central chamber in order to preserve and protect these ruins from further loss and erosion. Inside this modern building, there is an elevated boardwalk which allows visitors to walk around the old ruins and structures and to look down into what is believed to be the actual spot where Maya Devi gave birth to the Buddha approximately 2,600 years ago.

When I reached Maya Devi Temple after walking several miles from my hotel to the Peace Pagoda and then continuing south along the canal to the entrance of the temple, my feet were cooked. The morning had been hot and dry and my clothes and feet were caked in the town’s dust. After I paid for my entrance ticket to the Temple, I went to the shoe removal area where I took off and shelved my sandals, shook the dust of my feet and clothes, and then walked towards the front entrance of the Maya Devi Temple. I was surprised (and relieved) to find that the building was air-conditioned so it was very cool and comfortable inside. I took my time to walk along the planked circuit and studied the ruins of the original temple foundations and features below me. When I looked up ahead, I saw that the pathway snaked its away to an endpoint where there was a queue of people under the watch of two security officers. I could see that the security officers were permitting each individual some time to walk out alone to a viewing point for a very short period and then motioning each person to turn around so that the next person could walk out. I could also hear the officers admonishing all visitors that no photographs were permitted. But, by the time I heard this (and, admittedly, there were “no photo” signs posted inside), I had already surreptitiously snapped one photo showing the general layout of the inside of Maya Devi Temple.

When I reached the two security officers, one of them conversed with me in English and I thought at first that he may have caught me taking the photo. But, he was only interested in asking where I was from and when he learned how far I had traveled in order to visit Lumbini, he said that I could spend 5 minutes alone at the viewing spot. I thanked him and walked over to the end of the boardwalk and looked over the railing. Below me was something incredible. Encased behind what was labeled as “bulletproof” glass, there sat a chalky white, oblong stone containing the indentation of what appeared to be a small human foot. Could this actually have been made by the foot of the baby Buddha? Or was this a casting of someone else’s foot made later in order to mark the location of where the Buddha was born? There was no signage posted at the spot to provide any information on this marker stone. So, I had little understanding of this stone other than it must have been extremely valuable and fragile hence why it was behind bulletproof glass.

After studying this marker stone for a few minutes, I turned my head to the left to scan a section of the old temple wall that stood alone. This wall consisted of exposed and crumbling white bricks, but in the middle of this wall was a faded stone relief depicting a nativity scene. This stone image showed the Buddha’s mother, Maya Devi, holding onto a thick tree branch (from a Sal tree – these large trees are still found on the grounds of the Temple today) as she gave birth to the Buddha. Next to her, standing on a lotus, is the baby Buddha pointing up with his right index finger (the same pose as depicted in the golden statute donated by Thailand as shown in the photo above). I wish I could have taken a photo of this stone relief (I did buy a souvenir stone statue depicting this nativity scene afterwards), but there was no information at the Temple complex (or elsewhere after I researched further) that provided any details regarding the “provenance” of when, how, and who had created this stone nativity scene.

After I finished my private viewing of the area and walked back to where the security officers were sitting, I watched two people walk single file towards the railing above the marker stone, and then, one by one, each of them prostrated themselves in prayer before both the marker stone and the nativity stone relief. It was a scene that reminded me of the reverent prostrations I had seen from Tibetan pilgrims outside the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa in 2008 (see: https://startupkoan.com/2012/10/11/sketches-of-lhasa-2/).

I exited Maya Devi Temple from the back door of the building which led to the “puskarini” which is the name for the sacred pond where Maya Devi had bathed before she gave birth to the Buddha. The puskarini’s waters are now preserved in a modern water tank so that they will not succumb to drought or otherwise dissipate. After I circumambulated the puskarini, I headed to the sacred garden of the complex which contained many large, old Sal trees — some of which had small shrines created at the base of their massive trunks. In other parts of the garden, hundreds of prayer flags had been strung across the smaller trees. I found a rock to sit on and watched as a group of Theravadan monks emerged and began their afternoon prayers underneath a massive Sal tree. The sights and sounds of the prayers flags fluttering in the wind combined with the magical-sounding sanskrit mantras chanted by the monks made me feel as if I was sitting in an enchanted forest where any prayer could be heard, or any wish granted.

I continued to explore the sacred garden area and strolled through the dark red-bricked ruins of old monasteries and stupas until I circled back alongside the right side of the Maya Devi Temple and there behind some knee-high iron gates stood the Ashoka Pillar — one of the most important archaeological finds of the Buddhist world. For centuries, religious scholars, historians, and archaeologists had doubted the legitimacy of the claim that the Buddha had been born in this location. But, two important discoveries were made that have provided near-definitive proof of this birth-site claim. First, in 1896, a Nepali-German archaeology team discovered an intact, stone pillar buried on these grounds. When the pillar was extracted and cleaned, an easy-to-see inscription and date appeared on its exterior. This inscription was translated and it revealed the name and date of a pilgrimage made to this site by the first Buddhist King, Ashoka, who then erected this pillar with his words chiseled in its stone to commemorate the year of his visit which would have equated to 249 BCE.

Ashoka’s visit had taken place about 400 years after the Buddha’s birth which is believed to have occurred around 620 BCE. Ashoka had left other pillars and inscribed stone tablets at other important Buddhist sites (such as Sarnath where Ashoka’s famous 4-headed lion pillar was erected — an image of which is today found on India’s flag and currency). So, there is a great deal of archaeological precedent establishing the fact that Ashoka made deliberate visits to the key sites where the Buddha had lived, visited, and taught. Second, the marker stone itself (which is now encased behind bulletproof glass as mentioned earlier) was found during a very deep dig inside the old temple ruins in the mid-1990s. Based on the fact that this excavation went through many layers below the exposed floor of the temple ruins, the marker stone had to have been placed there either before, or around the same time as Ashoka’s visit. There are also historical writings by important figures such as Fa-Hsien/Faxian (a Chinese “Marco Polo”-type Buddhist monk who traveled extensively throughout the Buddhist world around 400 AD) who recorded their visits to this location and described the Ashoka Pillar as marking the spot of the Buddha’s birth. In light of all these verified archaeological and supplemental historical records, there is little doubt that the Buddha was undoubtedly born at this location, and, within a few centuries afterwards, this place had become an important pilgrimage site with the marker stone and the Ashoka Pillar as its central objects of veneration.

If the Lumbini city fathers succeed in their on-going, development plans, then perhaps Maya Devi Temple and its environs could possibly become a globally-known religio-tourist destination similar to St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. In the meantime, based on the many “No Tik Tok” signs I saw planted around the Maya Devi Temple’s grounds, it seems that the atmospheric ruins of its old stupas and sacred garden may be most appealing as the backdrop for capturing social media content. The fact that such sacrilegious behavior may take place at Maya Devi Temple’s grounds suggests that these visitors do not understand the profound spiritual and religious significance of this place. But, on the other hand, could there be legitimate Gen Z Buddhist influencers who want to faithfully promote this important place, and, then — one day — Maya Devi Temple has its “viral” moment and trends across our digitally-connected world?! Anything is possible.

Tags: Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamekha Stupa, Everest Base Camp, India, Kathmandu, Lumbini, Mahabodhi Temple, Mahayana, Maya Devi Temple, Nepal, pilgrimage, pilgrims, religious relics, Sarnath, Siddhartha Gautama, spiritual, Theravada, Tik Tok, travel blogs about Asia, travel writing, UNESCO