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Let's visit Lumbini!

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BISHNU PRASAD DEVKOTA
The Government of Nepal is celebrating Visit Lumbini Year (VLY) 2012 to promote the Buddha’s birthplace, and I’m just curious to know how many Nepalis may have visited Lumbini.

The other day, as I was walking from New Baneshwar to Basantapur, I asked passing commuters if they have been to Lumbini, and 16 out of 20 shrugged in the negative, as if Lumbini were a foreign land.

Lumbini has always been the ultimate destination to follow the Buddha’s idea of nonviolence. Of the seven billion people living in the world, 7% are Buddhists; the world’s top 10 countries with the largest Buddhist population are in Asia.

After being almost forgotten for about six centuries, Lumbini was rediscovered during the archaeological survey in the 1880s by General Khadga Shumsher Rana and Dr Alois Fuhrer. Lumbini is about 300 kilometers from Kathmandu via Narayangarh.

There are many places to visit in Lunbini that are being developed under the Lumbini Developmnt Trust since 1985. One can have a pleasant walk and pass through the Museum, the International Research Institute, the Friendship Bridge, Monastic Zone, Ashoka Pillar as well as the heart of the development project comprising the Sacred Garden that bears Lord Buddha’s teachings, Maya Devi Temple with the Nativity Sculpture and Pushkarini – the pond where the holy mother had taken bath after giving birth to Siddhartha Gautam, the name given to the Buddha.

In the larger Buddhist Circuit Tour, the visitors can explore Tilaurakot, Kudan, Gotihawa, Niglihawa, Sagarhawa, Aurorakot, Devdaha, Ramagrama, the places the Buddha’s life is associated with.

VLY 2012 was announced after Nepal Tourism Year 2011. The authority could have reflected upon the previous shortcomings by taking time to correct our road conditions, infrastructure enhancement, and information dissemination campaign and security provisions for the visitors.

With the target to attract one million visitors in VLY, Lumbini, so far, has been able to draw 496,503 visitors till August and there are not many days remaining in 2012.

Within the short time available, we can do some practical things: take our students for educational tours to Lumbini so that they learn more about the place which is in their course, organize local pilgrimage tours to the place, go on family tours, make Lumbini talk of the town in our gatherings, and organize campaigns on Facebook, among other things.

Even after the restoration of full-fledged democracy, the various governments of Nepal have busied themselves with bombastic things and have failed to focus on the instrumental things that can enhance our dignity and goodwill in the international arena.

On a personal level, we can be wholeheartedly reverent to underline the significance of the place and make the spiritual meaning of nonviolence a compelling reason to visit this holy land.

This can be the opportune time to visit Lumbini so that we get some spiritual balm to bear the turmoil, so that our souls are blessed with peace, so that we can rid ourselves of horrific memories of violence and murder.

I wish our leaders to reach the place to be enlightened for selfless service to nation building.

The writer is a university graduate in literature and is associated with tourism.

source:   Devkota, Bishnu Prasad (2012),"Let's visit Lumbini!", republica,18 Oct 2012