The birth palace of Gautam Buddha
By: Firoj Gurung | LUMBINI, NEPAL
“THE BIRTH PALACE OF GAUTAM BUDDHA”
Lumbini, the peaceful city located in Rupandehi district of Nepal, is the birthplace of Lord Gautam Buddha, the founder of Buddhism and thus is the most important pilgrimage destination for all schools of Buddhism all around the world. Lord Buddha, the enlightened one, was born here as Prince Siddhartha Gautam in 623 BC, the son of King Suddhodhan of the kingdom of Kapilvastu and his queen Maya Devi.
According to the Buddhist literary sources, on the day of Baisakh Purnima, Maya Devi, while on her way to her maternal home, took bath in Puskarini (a pond in the garden of the palace) and immediately felt the onset of her labor pain. She grabbed the branch of a big shady tree nearby for support and gave birth to a beautiful baby prince. It is said that as soon as he was born, the new born prince took seven steps in the holy soil under each of which a lotus flower bloomed immediately. Lumbini garden, where Maya Devi gave birth to Gautam Buddha, remained neglected for a long time but now it has been beautifully maintained, and the region is now listed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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The Lord Buddha was born in 623 BC in the sacred area of Lumbini, southern Nepal.Lumbini is one of the world’s most important spiritual sites for the Buddhist pilgrims from around the world. The site is a popular place of Buddhist pilgrimage for many yearly. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997. The tranquility, aura and peace that we would experience in Lumbini makes it among the most holy places to visit in the world. I am fortunate going to this holiest place of Buddha birthplace last year with my Dharma brothers and sisters .It is the place where, according to Buddhist tradition, worth visiting
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
I am very fortunate to be able to visit this holy place in March 2018 and we did prayer there. Indeed a beautiful place. Thank you Rinpoche and Kechara team for arranging the pilgrimage trip to Lumbini.
Lumbini -Buddha’s birthplace – is one of the four power places that Lord Buddha had recommended one should visit. Going on a pilgrimage to Lumbini brings powerful blessingse as well as having powerful imprints embedded in one’s mindstream. It creates the cause for meeting and receiving teachings from the future Buddha, Maitreya and also the causes to be born in pleasant places where we will have the right conditions and opportunities to practise the Dharma.
There are many activities that pilgrims can engage in and pilgrims should maximise the benefits by participating in these activities . These include – making prostrations, making offerings, engaging in single-pointed meditation, engaging in prayers or pujas, circumambulating holy images and reciting mantras as well as making mandala offerings.! One should engage in these activities with proper motivation and be focused on contemplating on these holy sites in relation to one’s spiritual path.
How wonderful and blessed to step on the same ground where the Buddha took his first steps and where he and other holy beings once dwelt! I would love to go on a pilgrimage to Lumbini, the only one of the four places I have not visited!
Heard of Lumbini before…… this beautiful and Holy place where Gautam buddha was born.It will be wonderful and blessed to visit this Holy place some day.I hope and able to make a pilgrimage trip with my friends.As advice by Rinpoche we should go to many Holy places as possible.
Well…. it is wonderful that it has been listed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site.Thats means more and more people will visit Lumbini.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing
This is a very holy place where Buddha Shakyamuni was born. I really hope I have the opportunity to visit Lumbini and also to join a pilgrimage trip to visit all the other holy places in the world.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article.about Buddha’s birthplace. It was indeed a once in a lifetime experience for me to be able to go to Lumbini. It takes a lot of good karma and merits to go there. Our group of 9 were able to go to Lumbini with no obstacles but on the day we left, we waited half a day at the airport as the airplane could not land in Lumbini airport as it was too foggy. We did group prayers with Serkym to DS and another small group of us did prayers again to Trakze. After a while, we received good news from Kathmandu airport saying that the airplane will be flying over soon. Although there is obstacle for us, but we still feel blessed to be able to visit to Buddha’s birthplace and make our aspirations there.
With folded palms,
Vivian
Wish I can go there one day and pay a visit would be awesome to be at the place that buddha attained enlightenment 🙂 .
I would love to go to Lumbini.. of the four pilgrimage places that David mentioned, so far i have only been to Bodhgaya, which was a wonderful pilgrimage which Tsem Rinpoche advised my father to go on due to his ill health and during this trip, my father said he never felt better! This was what I shared about the trip http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/students-friends/entering-sharons-blog-space.html
For an insight into why we should visit holy places, watch Rinpoche’s teaching on this here: http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/why-visit-holy-pilgrimages-2.html
Hope everyone gets to visit these holy places too…
The place is not only pretty, but so holy. Lumbini is one of the most important sites for Buddhist to go on pilgrimage. As a place where Buddha was born, it certainly is a special place for all Buddhists. Some people, if their samaya and practice is strong and clean, they will gain great attainments just by visiting holy places such as Lumbini.
Lumbini is one of the 4 most important Buddhist pilgrimage sites in the world. Lumbini marks the spot where the Buddha was born. The 4 correspond to the Lumbini where the Buddha was born, Bodhgaya where he became enlightened, Sarnath, Varanasi where he first turned the Wheel of Dharma and Kushinagar where he entered Parinirvana and left his earthly body.
These 4 sites was recommended by the Buddha to go on pilgrimage for future practitioners after he has entered parinirvana. I am fortunate in the fact that I managed to travel to 3 out of the 4 places. I have only not been to Lumbini. And I was very lucky because I managed to bring my father to these 3 places.