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Birth Place Of Lord Buddha

2011-12-25T23:04:00.000-08:00

Lumbini (Garden): The world heritage Site of Religion. Lumbini is the sound birthplace of Lord Siddhartha Gautam Buddha the Apostle of Compassion & Non-Collide. He is not only the Light of Asia but the Messenger of Universal Peace as well. The auspicious garden of Lumbini is situated amidst the newly established town of (Bhairahawa) Siddharthanagar in the hot Terai plains of west Nepal. The broken Ashokan pillars, holy remnants of an old Buddhist monastery, divine images of the Buddha's mother Great Mayadevi, are still well preserved here. Extensive excavation task is being carried out with promising effects. The Buddhist Monasteries: The monastery of the Buddhist temple is built inside the surrounding complex of Lumbini in the manner of modern Buddhist shrines in Nepal. The prayer hall contains a big image of Lord Shakyamuni Buddha in the medieval style. Colorful artistic murals decorated the large walls.
The Ashokan Pillar: Discovered by the famous German archaeologist Dr. Fuhrer, the pillar is the first epigraphic evidence relating to the life history of Lord Buddha and is also the most visible landmark of the auspicious garden. The historical importance of the pillar is evidenced by the inscription engraved on the pillar (in Brahmi characters). It is said that the Hindu Indian Emperor Ashok the Great, who got converted, visited the site in the twentieth year of his accession to the throne and as homage to the pure birth place erected the pillar. The inscription on the pillar roughly translates as " King Piyadesi the beloved of the Gods having been anointed 20 years came himself and worshipped saying Here Buddha Sakyamuni was born. He caused to make a stone capital representing a horse and he caused (this) stone pillar to be erected. Because here the worshipful one was born the village of Lumbini has been made free of taxes and recipient of wealth."

Sanctum Sanctorum of the Birthplace: The single most important place LUMBINI (and to the entire Buddhist world for that matter) is the stone-slab located deep Sanctum Sanctorum. Revealed after a hard and meticulous excavation under the three layers of ruins over the site of a famous Mayadevi Temple, the stone-slab foundation pinpoints the location of the original place, marking the precise spot of the birthplace of Lord Buddha.

Image of Maha Mayadevi: In additional to the Ashokan Pillar, the other shrine of importance is the bas- relief image of Maha Mayadevi, the Queen of King Suddhodan. Enshrined in a small pagoda-like structure the image shows Mayadevi, the mother of Drown Prince Siddhartha Gautam. She is seen supporting herself by holding on with her right hand to a branch of Sal tree, with the newly born infant Buddha standing upright on a lotus pedestal on an oval halo. Two other celestial figures are depicted in an act of pouring holy water and lotuses bestowed from heaven. Earlier the image was placed in the famous white temple of Mayadevi besides the pillar mow totally dismantles to make way for the excavations which revealed the Sanctum Sanctorum the exact spot where out Lord was born.

Puskarni: the Sacred Pool: South of the Ashokan Pillar, there is the famous sacred pool named "Puskarni" believed to be the same holy pool in which Mayadevi took a pious dip just before giving birth to the Lord and also where the infant Buddha was given its first purification bath. Architecturally the pool has three projecting terraces in the ascending order and is revealed with fine brick masonry.

Kapilvastu / Tilalurakot: Located some 27 kilometers west of Lumbini lies the ruins of the historic town of "Kapilvastu". Believed to be the capital of Shakya republic where the Lord lived and enjoyed his life until his thirteenth year , Kapilvastu has been identified with Tilaurakot by the archaeologists. Also, the place is believed to have been associated with different important episodes. There are ruins and mounds of old stupas and monasteries made of kiln-burnt bricks and clay-mortar. The remains are surrounded by a moat and the walls of the city are made of bricks. Infant the ruins of the ancient city of Kapilvastu are in such a grand scale that it could easily be visualized as a high seat of authentic culture.

Arorakot: About 10 kilometers northwest of Taulihawa there is a rectangular fortified area, which is popularly known as Arorakot. The famous Indian archaeologist P. C. Mukherji as the natal town of Kanakmuni Buddha identified the fortified area. Remains of the old moat and the brick fortification around the Kot can still be clearly located. A brick lined well is seen to the south and an elevated mound towards the northwest corner.

Chaatradei: Some 5 kilometers north to Taulihawa there is a village called Chatradei situated on the right bank of the Banganga River. West of the village the habitat ional ruins extend in the form of al large triangular mound. Most of the pottery and antiquities found here belong to the Sunga- Kushana period while the virtual remains of the structures may be related to the early medieval times.

Gotihawa: About 5 kilometers southwest of Taulihawa, there is a village called Gotihawa. In the village there exists an Ashokan Pillar standing in a slab. The upper portion of the pillar is broken and lost and only the lower portion of the pillar 3.5 meters high remains still intact. Adjoining the pillar, towards its northeast there is a colossal stupa with successive rings of wedge shape Mauryan bricks.

Kudan: Roughly 2 kilometers South west of Taulihawa on the left side of the shoratgarh- Taulihawa road, stands the village of Kudan having a huge structural ruin with a cluster of four mounds and a tank. The mounds were excavated in 1962 only.

Niglihawa: About 8 kilometers north- west of Taulihawa, there is another site of archaeological importance. The site has a quadrangular tank surrounded by bushes locally known as Niglisagar. On the western bank of the tank there appear two broken pieces of the Ashokan Pillar, the longer one laying flat and the shorter one stuck unto the ground. The pillar bears 2 peacocks in the top part and Devnagri script inscription reading Om -Ma - Ni - hum Ripu Mallasya Chiran Jayut 1234. The shorter portion of the pillar which is partly buried in the ground measures 1.52 meters in length containing four lines of Ashoka inscription in the Brahmi letters which roughly translates as "King Piyadasi, believed of the Gods after 14 years of his coronation enlarged for the second tine the Stupa of Buddha Kanakmuni and after 20 years of his coronation he came himself and worshipped and he caused this stone pillar to be erected."

Sagarhawa: About 12 kilometers north of Taulihawa there exists a forest area called Sagarhawa. In the midst of the forestation there is a huge rectangular tank, which is popularly known as Lumbusagar, or a long tank. The ancient tank ruins, which were excavated and identified by Dr. Alois A. Fuhrer as the "Place of the Massacre of the Shakyas" in 1859, can still, be located on the Southwest banks of Sagar.
Day 1 Kathmandu Arrival Kathmandu. Transfer to hotel. Evening sightseeing or rest.

Day 2 Kathmandu
Lumbini Drive (7 to 8 hours) or flight (45 minutes) to Lumbini. Evening, local sightseeing or a visit to Lumbini Garden.

Day 3 Lumbini
Kapilvastu Lumbini An early morning visit to Lumbini Garden for worship, then drive (35 minutes) to Kapilvastu to visit all the pilgrimage-sites. Return to Lumbini in the evening.

Day 4 Lumbini
Kathmandu Drive or flight to Kathmandu. Sightseeing or shopping trip in the evening.

Day 5 Kathmandu
Next Destination Transfer to airport. Departure from Kathmandu.
Surendra Rai 00977-9842344022

Buddha was born in Lumbini of modern Nepal.

2011-12-22T22:20:00.000-08:00

Buddha was born around 565 B.C. in Lumbini in modern day Nepal. His name was Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama)' means 'descendant of Gotama whose aims are achieved/who is efficacious in achieving aims', he later became the Buddha (literally Enlightened One or Awakened One). He is also commonly known as 'Shakyamuni' or 'Sakyamuni' (lit. "The sage of the Shakya clan") and as the Tathagata (lit. "thus come" or "thus gone").

Siddhartha Gautama was born in Kapilvastu Lumbini (a town situated in modern Nepal, near the Indian border but clearly Buddha was not born in India) under the full moon of May to the clan of the Shakyas, a warrior tribe. His father, Suddhodana, was the ruler of the Sakya people and Siddhartha grew up living the extravagant life of a young prince. His mother name was Mayadevi.

According to custom, he married at the young age of sixteen to a girl named Yasodhara. His father had ordered that he live a life of total seclusion, but one day Siddhartha ventured out into the world and was confronted with the reality of the inevitable suffering of life. The next day, at the age of twenty-nine, he left his kingdom and newborn son to lead an ascetic life and determine a way to relieve universal suffering.

For six years, Siddhartha submitted himself to rigorous ascetic practices, studying and following different methods of meditation with various religious teachers. But he was never fully satisfied. One day, however, he was offered a bowl of rice from a young girl and he accepted it. In that moment, he realized that physical austerities were not the means to achieve liberation. From then on, he encouraged people to follow a path of balance rather than extremism. He called this The Middle Way.

That night Siddhartha sat under the Bodhi tree, and meditated until dawn. He purified his mind of all defilements and attained enlightenment at the age of thirty-five, thus earning the title Buddha, or "Enlightened One". For the remainder of his eighty years, the Buddha preached the Dharma in an effort to help other sentient beings reach enlightenment.

Today is the 255th birthday of Lord Gautam Buddha.The day of his birth is widely celebrated in Buddhist countries as Vesak. 2554th birthday of Lord Buddha is being celebrated today all over the world.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, has died

2011-12-19T03:37:00.000-08:00

Kim Jong Il, North Korea's mercurial and enigmatic leader whose iron rule and nuclear ambitions dominated world security fears for more than a decade, has died. He was 69.
Kim's death 17 years after he inherited power from his father was announced Monday by the state television from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. The country's "Dear Leader" — reputed to have had a taste for cigars, cognac and gourmet cuisine — was believed to have had diabetes and heart disease.
North Korea has been grooming Kim's third son to take over power from his father in the impoverished nation that celebrates the ruling family with an intense cult of personality.
South Korea put its military on "high alert" and President Lee Myung-bak convened a national security council meeting after the news of Kim's death.
In a "special broadcast" Monday, state media said Kim died of a heart ailment on a train due to a "great mental and physical strain" on Saturday during a "high intensity field inspection."
Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008 but he had appeared relatively vigorous in photos and video from recent trips to China and Russia and in numerous trips around the country carefully documented by state media.
Kim Jong Il inherited power after his father, revered North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994. He had been groomed for 20 years to lead the communist nation founded by his guerrilla fighter-turned-politician father and built according to the principle of "juche," or self-reliance.
In September 2010, Kim Jong Il unveiled his third son, the twenty-something Kim Jong Un, as his successor, putting him in high-ranking posts.
Even with a successor, there had been some fear among North Korean observers of a behind-the-scenes power struggle or nuclear instability upon the elder Kim's death.
Few firm facts are available when it comes to North Korea, one of the most isolated countries in the world, and not much is clear about the man known as the "Dear Leader."
North Korean legend has it that Kim was born on Mount Paekdu, one of Korea's most cherished sites, in 1942, a birth heralded in the heavens by a pair of rainbows and a brilliant new star.
Soviet records, however, indicate he was born in Siberia, in 1941.
Kim Il Sung, who for years fought for independence from Korea's colonial ruler, Japan, from a base in Russia, emerged as a communist leader after returning to Korea in 1945 after Japan was defeated in World War II.
With the peninsula divided between the Soviet-administered north and the U.S.-administered south, Kim rose to power as North Korea's first leader in 1948 while Syngman Rhee became South Korea's first president.
The North invaded the South in 1950, sparking a war that would last three years, kill millions of civilians and leave the peninsula divided by a Demilitarized Zone that today remains one of the world's most heavily fortified.
In the North, Kim Il Sung meshed Stalinist ideology with a cult of personality that encompassed him and his son. Their portraits hang in every building in North Korea and on the lapels of every dutiful North Korean.
Kim Jong Il, a graduate of Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung University, was 33 when his father anointed him his eventual successor.
Even before he took over as leader, there were signs the younger Kim would maintain — and perhaps exceed — his father's hard-line stance.
South Korea has accused Kim of masterminding a 1983 bombing that killed 17 South Korean officials visiting Burma, now known as Myanmar. In 1987, the bombing of a Korean Air Flight killed all 115 people on board; a North Korean agent who confessed to planting the device said Kim ordered the downing of the plane himself.
Kim Jong Il took over after his father died in 1994, eventually taking the posts of chairman of the National Defense Commission, commander of the Korean People's Army and head of the ruling Worker's Party while his father remained as North Korea's "eternal president."
He faithfully carried out his father's policy of "military first," devoting much of the country's scarce resources to its troops — even as his people suffered from a prolonged famine — and built the world's fifth-largest military.
Kim also sought to build up the country's nuclear arms arsenal, which culminated in North Korea's first nuclear test explosion, an underground blast conducted in October 2006. Another test came in 2009.
Alarmed, regional leaders negotiated a disarmament-for-aid pact that the North signed in 2007 and began implementing later that year.
However, the process continues to be stalled, even as diplomats work to restart negotiations.
North Korea, long hampered by sanctions and unable to feed its own people, is desperate for aid. Flooding in the 1990s that destroyed the largely mountainous country's arable land left millions hungry.
Following the famine, the number of North Koreans fleeing the country through China rose dramatically, with many telling tales of hunger, political persecution and rights abuses that officials in Pyongyang emphatically denied.
Kim often blamed the U.S. for his country's troubles and his regime routinely derides Washington-allied South Korea as a "puppet" of the Western superpower.
U.S. President George W. Bush, taking office in 2002, denounced North Korea as a member of an "axis of evil" that also included Iran and Iraq. He later described Kim as a "tyrant" who starved his people so he could build nuclear weapons.
"Look, Kim Jong Il is a dangerous person. He's a man who starves his people. He's got huge concentration camps. And ... there is concern about his capacity to deliver a nuclear weapon," Bush said in 2005.
Kim was an enigmatic leader. But defectors from North Korea describe him as an eloquent and tireless orator, primarily to the military units that form the base of his support.
The world's best glimpse of the man was in 2000, when the liberal South Korean government's conciliatory "sunshine" policy toward the North culminated in the first-ever summit between the two Koreas and followed with unprecedented inter-Korean cooperation.
A second summit was held in 2007 with South Korea's Roh Moo-hyun.
But the thaw in relations drew to a halt in early 2008 when conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul pledging to come down hard on communist North Korea.
Disputing accounts that Kim was "peculiar," former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright characterized Kim as intelligent and well-informed, saying the two had wide-ranging discussions during her visits to Pyongyang when Bill Clinton was U.S. president.
"I found him very much on top of his brief," she said.
Kim cut a distinctive, if oft ridiculed, figure. Short and pudgy at 5-foot-3, he wore platform shoes and sported a permed bouffant. His trademark attire of jumpsuits and sunglasses was mocked in such films as "Team America: World Police," a movie populated by puppets that was released in 2004.
Kim was said to have cultivated wide interests, including professional basketball, cars and foreign films. He reportedly produced several North Korean films as well, mostly historical epics with an ideological tinge.
A South Korean film director claimed Kim even kidnapped him and his movie star wife in the late 1970s, spiriting them back to North Korea to make movies for him for a decade before they managed to escape from their North Korean agents during a trip to Austria.
Kim rarely traveled abroad and then only by train because of an alleged fear of flying, once heading all the way by luxury rail car to Moscow, indulging in his taste for fine food along the way.
One account of Kim's lavish lifestyle came from Konstantin Pulikovsky, a former Russian presidential envoy who wrote the book "The Orient Express" about Kim's train trip through Russia in July and August 2001.
Pulikovsky, who accompanied the North Korean leader, said Kim's 16-car private train was stocked with crates of French wine. Live lobsters were delivered in advance to stations.
A Japanese cook later claimed he was Kim's personal sushi chef for a decade, writing that Kim had a wine cellar stocked with 10,000 bottles, and that, in addition to sushi, Kim ate shark's fin soup — a rare delicacy — weekly.
"His banquets often started at midnight and lasted until morning. The longest lasted for four days," the chef, who goes by the pseudonym Kenji Fujimoto, was quoted as saying.
Kim is believed to have curbed his indulgent ways in recent years and looked slimmer in more recent video footage aired by North Korea's state-run broadcaster.
Kim's marital status wasn't clear but he is believed to have married once and had at least three other companions. He had at least three sons with two women, as well as a daughter by a third.
His eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, 38, is believed to have fallen out of favor with his father after he was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport in 2001 saying he wanted to visit Disney's Tokyo resort.
His two other sons by another woman, Kim Jong Chul and Kim Jong Un, are in their 20s. Their mother reportedly died several years ago.

New envoy of Aamerica to India

2011-12-17T23:03:00.000-08:00

In the midst of what is seen as a cooling period in relations between India and the US, the Obama administration has named career diplomat Nancy Powell as America’s next ambassador to India.
The appointment of Powell, 64, former US ambassador to Pakistan, will take effect when confirmed by the US Senate. Considered an expert on South Asia, she is currently serving as Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources in the Department of State.
In a statement announcing Powell’s appointment, President Barack Obama described her as a fine public servant who would bring a depth of experience and tremendous dedication to her new role. He said America would be well-served by her and that he looked forward to working with her in the months and years to come.
The US Ambassador’s post in New Delhi has been lying vacant since June when Tim Roemer left India before completing his full term, citing personal reasons. Peter Burleigh has been officiating as Charge d’affaires since then.
The tough-talking Powell served the US in Islamabad from 2002-2004 when tension between India and Pakistan was extremely high in the wake of the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001.
One Indian diplomat recalled her speech in Karachi in January 2003 when she accused Pakistan of serving as a "platform for terrorism" and warned that this must stop. Powell also asked the Pakistan authorities to ensure that militant groups were not able to cross into Jammu and Kashmir.
Powell's comments were then seen as unusually strong for a serving American Ambassador in Pakistan and amounting to a rebuke to the Pervez Musharraf regime in Islamabad. On several other occasions during her stint in Islamabad, Powell was unsparing in her criticism of the Pakistan government on the issue of terrorism.
Apart from Pakistan, she served her country as its ambassador to Nepal, Ghana and Uganda. Her other overseas assignments included service in Ottawa, Kathmandu, Islamabad, Lome, Kolkata, New Delhi and Dhaka.
Once her appointment is approved by the Senate, Powell will take charge of her assignment in New Delhi at a time when the warmth in bilateral ties between India and the US has subsided somewhat after the historic visit of President Obama to India last November.
The landmark India-US civil nuclear deal is languishing due to differences between the two sides over its operationalisation. Washington is not happy with India’s Civil Nuclear Liability Law, contending that American nuclear companies have reservations about the liability clause. New Delhi argues that the act, which provides a ‘level-playing field' to all nuclear players, can’t be amended as it is the property of Parliament.

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2011-12-15T03:57:00.001-08:00

Mr. Houlan clearify to PM Bhattarai.

2011-12-15T02:28:00.000-08:00

Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yang Houlan met Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai on Thursday at PM’s official residence in Baluwatar, Kathmandu in order to clarify over the postponement of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s visit to Nepal.

The Chinese envoy clarified the visit of the Chinese leader has been deferred citing Jiabao’s ‘inevitable presence’ in Beijing at this period of time.

Houlan has requested Bhattarai to ‘reschedule’ it for some time. “The Chinese leader will visit Nepal soon,” he added but did not mention when.

“We are really sorry to inform you about our premier’s inability to visit Nepal now,” told Chinese envoy to Bhattarai.

Jiabao’s was slated to arrive in Nepal on a three-day official visit on December 20, until the Northern neighbour cancelled it on Tuesday, citing that his presence in Beijing became necessary to be engaged in economic and budgetary issues.

2011-12-10T03:48:00.001-08:00

Thousands of protesters have gathered in Moscow in a show of anger over disputed parliamentary polls.

The opposition says the protest - on an island just south of the Kremlin - could become the largest the country has seen in two decades.

Smaller rallies have taken place in cities across the country.

Protesters allege there was widespread fraud in Sunday's polls - though the ruling United Russia party saw its share of the vote fall sharply.

Hundreds of people have been arrested during anti-Putin protests over the past week, mainly in Moscow and St Petersburg.

At least 50,000 police and riot troops were deployed in Moscow ahead of Saturday's protests.

Authorities have permitted up to 30,000 to attend the demonstration dubbed "For Fair Elections".

Rallies have seen thousands turn out in cities in across the Urals and Siberia and as far east as Vladivostok, seven timezones to the east of Moscow, where several hundred people marched earlier on Saturday.

Protest relocated

Police say at least 15,000 people - among them communists, nationalists and liberals - have so far thronged in Moscow, and more crowds are heading towards the rally.

In Moscow, the two sides reached a deal by which authorities would allow a high turnout if the rally was relocated from central Revolution Square to Bolotnaya Square, a narrow island in the Moscow River where access points can be easily controlled.

Hundreds of police are standing by to make sure they don't rally in Revolution Square.

The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow says in the past week, the city has resembled a police state rather than a democracy.

If the protests come even close to expectations, they will shake the 12-year-long political domination of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, he says.

The authorities permitted demonstrations to take place in specific locations in certain cities after negotiations with opposition leaders.

In St Petersburg, 13,000 people have pledged on the social networking site Vkontakte to take part in protests, with another 20,000 saying they might take part.

An hour before the protest was set to begin, small crowds were forming in an unauthorised spot in St Petersburg, reports the BBC's Richard Galpin - and scuffles had already broken out between demonstrators and police apparently attempting to make some arrests.

Authorities have granted permission for a demonstration in one location, but say protests anywhere else will be illegal and will be dealt with.

RUSSIA'S NEW DISSENT

24 Sept: Vladimir Putin announces he is aiming to return to the presidency for a third term, to dismay of liberal opponents
20 Nov: Putin booed at martial arts fight
4 Dec: Parliamentary elections: United Russia win, but suffer sharp drop in support to under 50%
5 and 6 Dec: Mass protests in Moscow and elsewhere; protesters chant "Russia without Putin!" Hundreds are arrested
10 Dec: Fresh protests called

The official results of the elections to Russia's Duma showed that the ruling United Russia party saw its share of the vote fall from 64% to 49%, though it remained easily the biggest party.

But there is a widespread view, fuelled by mobile phone videos and accounts on internet social networking sites, that there was wholesale election fraud and that Mr Putin's party cheated its way to victory, our correspondent says.

On Friday, the presidential Council for Human Rights advising Mr Medvedev said the reports of vote-rigging were of deep concern, and that the elections should be rerun if they were confirmed.

However the council has no power to order a fresh ballot, correspondents say.

Earlier this week, security experts said attempts had been made to counter online dissent in Russia, with hijacked PCs being used to drown out online chat on Twitter.

Analysis of the many pro-Kremlin messages posted to some discussions suggested they were sent by machines, according to security firm Trend Micro.

Momentum

The authorities have arrested hundreds of people

These are the most significant street protests against Mr Putin since he took power, our correspondent says - but at this point they are not drawing the big numbers they would need to really put the Kremlin in trouble.

It will be a question of seeing whether the momentum builds and spreads from the metropolitan middle classes.

Even so, our correspondent adds, it is an extraordinary thing to witness Mr Putin under fire like this.

Mr Putin, who was president between 2000 and 2008, remains widely predicted to win a presidential election in March.

On Thursday, he blamed the US for stoking the recent unrest, after Secretary of State Hilary Clinton expressed reservations over the poll.

The prime minister said Mrs Clinton's remarks had "set the tone for some opposition activists".

Are you in Moscow? Are you planning to protest? Send us your comments using the form below.

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.

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2011-12-10T02:25:00.001-08:00

CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta for exclusive backstage interviews with the top 10 CNN Heroes and assorted celebrity guests during Sunday night’s CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute broadcast starting at 8pm ET. Got a question for one of our Heroes or even Dr. Gupta himself? Send it via Twitter to @sanjayguptacnn during the show, then log on to CNN.com/Live or your CNN mobile app to watch for the answers. It all begins Sunday night at 8pm ET.