Information on Lumbini


LUMBINI, THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE LORD BUDDHA

Siddhartha Gautama, the Lord Buddha, was born in 623 B.C. in the famous gardens of Lumbini, which soon became a place of pilgrimage. Among the pilgrims was the Indian emperor Ashoka, who erected one of his commemorative pillars there. The site is now being developed as a Buddhist pilgrimage centre, where the archaeological remains associated with the birth of the Lord Buddha form a central feature

The Chinese traveller Xuanzang visited Lumbini in the seventh century CE, and he mentions the pillar erected by Asoka, that had a horse capital (which has been lost) and that an “evil naga’s [serpent] ferocious thunder-clap split the pillar in the middle down to the earth”. The depiction of the Asokan pillar shows the crack passing through the inscription, and a metallic belt that was fitted to stabilise the pillar.

Japanese Architect Kenzo Tange placed the Asokan pillar in the centre of the five-by-five-mile Master Plan of Lumbini that was prepared under the auspices of the United Nations in the 1970s. The main axis pointed north towards the foothills and high Himalayas. The visitors were to be guided by the Ashoka Pillar to the Sacred Garden and by the Himalayan Mountain range when departing. The mountains seen in the background are part of the Dhaulagiri Range, with the main peak rising to 8,167 metres, which is the seventh highest mountain in the world.