Saturday, May 01, 2004

Buddhist Wonderland

Goodbye India (and yes, we did have a good time, but in some ways was "Good riddance India") and hello Buddhist paradise.



If Bodhgaya was a Buddhist supermarket, Lumbini (the site of the Buddha's birth) is Buddhist Disney World. It's just over the border into Nepal, and that alone would make it a whole lot more relaxed. But Lumbini is also a giant park - a huge green tree-lined expanse that takes an hour or two to walk across. Just like Bodhgaya, each Buddhist country (and even some not-so-Buddhist ones, eg Germany) has it's own temple, but here the scale's a whole lot bigger. Where the Korean temple in Bodhgaya was little more than an abandoned shack, here it is a whole monastic complex, the largest building half a dozen stories high. We were so impressed, we stayed there, which was a nice treat, though I'm sad to say the kimchi was not.



We also met a Japanese monk whose adventures in Nepal made all our travel plans seem rather lame. He had walked the entire length of Nepal, carrying nothing but a drum which he beat as he walked. He had no blanket or food, but depended just on the generosity of strangers. He also marched headlong into the Maoist-held territory in the west, where he was captured, taken for a spy, and marched at gunpoint to their headquarters. Eventually they realised he was no spy, but just a crazy monk, gave him some food and money and sent him on his way.

While in in Lumbini, we also got to see the Nepalese Buddha's Birthday celebrations. We expected a pretty spectacular show, given that this is where the big guy was actually born, but in the end were relieved that it was a pleasantly low-key affair. A nice change from exuberant India.

Posted by Andrew Wallace @ 7:55 PM