April 26, 2023: Lumbini, Birthplace of the Buddha

This evening was a short flight from Lumbini to Kathmandu, with waiting time in VIP lounge with various ministers and officers enjoying the quiet there.

The day began with a visit to the two oldest temples in the Lumbini area, that were constructed before the master plan designated placement of Buddhist temples in a certain area. These two older temples were located close to the MahaDevi Temple, the Buddha's mother temple, where Buddha was born. I was fortunate to spend the morning with the informed and personable Campus Chief of Lumbini Buddhist University, Nir Bahadur Gurung.

The first temple was filled with Maharastrans from India, who have left the caste system into which they were born and have become Buddhists. The Buddhist teacher in front was teaching in a Nepali accented Hindu dialect addressed to them. Many of them had travelled from India for this special holiday. The Buddhist teacher, a Theravadin monk, was teaching them while sitting sideways in front of the room, in this tradition it is considered wrong to have your back towards a representation of the Buddha, in this case, statues. Following the teachings and when his disciples had left the temple for cooking food and other festivities in the surrounding gardens, we spoke with him about his time working with the United Nations in Sri Lanka.

After wandering round the temple gardens with the Maharashtrans, we walked to the other older temple, a Sakya lineage temple which was empty of tourists and visitors. 

Although the sign indicated no photography, I documented the condition of the wall paintings and created several videos about conservation options which include stabilization of the original and digital recreation of how they might have looked when new.

The next venue was the Lumbini Museum, which was closed for renovations. Following that we  visited the headquarters of the Lumbini Development Trust, and had really interesting discussions about conservation/preservation/restoration and architecture styles. 

The final delight of the day was lunch with several Lumbini Buddhist University Faculty members in a Nepali thali restaurant. 

We walked around in the heat, very hot and dry! and then enjoyed a three wheeler that ran on a battery with iffy wiring under the passenger seat!

Looking forward to tomorrow with three Embassy appointments and a lecture to a private high school about Art Conservation as a possible career.