JOURNEY OF LORD BUDDHA FROM WOMB TO TOMB

The Lord Buddha was born in 623 BC in the sacred area of LUMBINI located in the Terai plains of southern Nepal, testified by the inscription on the pillar erected by the Mauryan Emperor Asoka in 249 BC. Lumbini is one of the holiest places of one of the world’s great religions, and its remains contain important evidence about the nature of Buddhist pilgrimage centres from as early as the 3rd century BC.

Lord Buddha’s birth is itself fascinating. It is said that his mother, Maya, conceived him when she dreamed a white elephant in her sleep. It is believed that Buddha himself reincarnated as white elephant which is associated with goodliness and nobility. The complex of structures within the archaeological conservation area includes the Shakya Tank; the remains within the Maya Devi Temple and Ashoka pillar with its Pali inscription. Additionally, there are the excavated remains of Buddhist viharas (monasteries) and Buddhist stupas  (memorial shrines) up to 15th century AD. 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 entire complex in Lumbini including the buffer zone is owned by the Nepal Government and is being managed by the Lumbini Development Trust. There is a crane sanctuary adjacent. This large bird was once saved by Buddha when he was young.  The long-term challenges for the protection and management of the property are to control the impact of visitors, and natural impacts including humidity and the industrial development in the region. A Management Plan is in the process of being developed to ensure the long-term safeguarding of the archaeological vestiges of the property while allowing for the property to continue being visited by pilgrims and tourists from around the world. It is a World Heritage Site declared by UNESCO.

BODH GAYA:

There are world famous monuments symbolizing various religions- temples for Hindus, mosques for Muslim and Churches for Christians. But the world’s fourth largest religion, Buddhism originated from under a tree in Bodh Gaya in Bihar (India). Still standing tall the peepal tree or ashwattha or Bodhi Tree under which the great Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment. It is worshipped by Buddhists all over the world. 

A visit to the tree within the Buddhist Mahodadhi temple complex one finds serenity at its best. Barring the chirping of the birds and hustle sound of leaves because of their long stems no other sound is audible. There is a concrete pandal surrounding the tree and below it kneeling quietly a number of Buddhist monks and nuns from different countries. Silently they are chanting mantras wearing yellow or white robes. This tree is cited as a direct descendant of the original specimen  planted in 288 BCE. This tree is a frequent destination for pilgrims, being the most important of the four main Buddhist pilgrimage sites. Every year on December 8, Bodhi Day celebrates Buddha’s enlightenment underneath the Bodhi Tree.

According to Buddhist texts, the Buddha meditated without moving from his seat for seven long weeks under this tree. A shrine called Animisalocana cetiya, was later erected on the spot where he sat. The spot was used as a shrine even in the lifetime of the Buddha. King Ashoka was most diligent in paying homage to the Bodhi tree, and held a festival every year in its honour in the month of Karttika. Ashoka also built the Mahabodhi temple (now a UNESCO Heritage Site)} around the Bodhi tree, with Sculpture of the Satavahana period at Sanchi, 1st century CE. But the celebrated Bodhi tree is very much decayed; one large stem, with three branches to the westward, is still green, but the other branches are bark less and rotten.

One huge branch is even supported by an iron pillar while the whole complex is surrounded by high concrete walls. The green branch perhaps belongs to some younger tree, as there are numerous stems of apparently different trees clustered together. The tree must have been renewed frequently, as the present Pipal is standing on a terrace at least 30 feet above the level of the surrounding courtyard. It was in full vigour till 1811, when seen by Dr. Buchanan (Hamilton) a famous Botanist who describes it as in all probability not exceeding 100 years of age. However, the tree decayed further and in 1876 the remaining tree was destroyed in a storm.

In 1881, a new Bodhi tree was planted on the same site. Despite being so sacred, the Bodha tree had its bad times but it survived all. Every time the tree was destroyed, a new tree was planted in the same place as per Chinese traveler Xuanzang. The sacred Bodhi Tree is surrounded by a wall and guarded by police as extremists bombed the site in 2013. King Asoka’s daughter, Sanghamittra and son Mahindra took a piece of the Bodhi tree with them Sri Lanka where it is continuously growing to this day in the island’s ancient capital, Anuradhapura. Although the original Bodhi tree deteriorated and died of old age, the descendants of the branch that was brought by Emperor Ashoka’s children can still be found on the island.

This Bodhi tree is worshipped and is known to cause rain and heal all the ill. SARNATH just 10 km from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, is where at 35 years of age, Gautama Buddha taught his first sermon after attaining enlightenment at Bodh Gaya. It is also where the Buddhist sangha first came into existence as a result of the enlightenment of his first five disciples (Kaundinya, Assaji, Bhaddiya, Vappa and Mahanama).

Today, an Archaeological Survey of India has a museum known for its interesting sculptures, ceramics, parasol and inscriptions of that age apart from the strikingly impressive Lion Capital. The Lion Capital, a sculpture of four Asiatic lions standing back- to-back, was originally placed on top of the pillar at Sarnath by the great Mauryan emperor Ashoka. The basic principle of Buddhism is the four noble truths — the existence of sorrow, cause of sorrow, termination of sorrow and termination of sorrow leading to enlightenment or nirvana. Again, this is obtained by adherence to eight noble paths — right views, right aspirations, right speech, right conduct, right living, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation. All these messages were spread from this place. It was here that Buddha formed a sangha of 60 disciples for the first time and 54 others joined him. From this place Buddha’s philosophy spread to all over the sub-continent.

As per the Mahaparinibbana sutta, after a meal with Cunda, a blacksmith, Buddha and his companions continued travelling until he was too weak to endure and had to stop at Kushinagar. Ānanda his disciple had a resting place prepared in a grove of Sala trees. After announcing to the sangha at large that he would soon be passing away to final Nirvana, the Buddha ordained one last novice Subhadda. He then repeated his final instructions to the sangha, which was that the Dhamma and Vinaya was to be their teacher after his death. Then he asked if anyone had any doubts about the teaching, but nobody did. The Buddha’s final words are reported to have been: “Behold, O monks, this is my last advice to you. All component things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation”.

At KUSHINAGAR there is a Parinirvana Temple containing the statue 6.10 metres of the reclining Buddha made of a single block of red sandstone. It represents the Buddha in the position he was in when he died and attained parinirvana — reclining on his right side with his head to the north, feet to the south, and face towards the west. Located just behind the Parinirvana Temple there is the Parinirvana Stupa (Nirvana Chaitya), Ramabhar Stupa (also called Mukutbandhan Chaitya) is the cremation place of Buddha. This site is 1.5 km east of the Parinirvana Temple on the Kushinagar-Deoria road.

There is also Matha Kuar Shrine which contains a large statue of Buddha, carved out of one block of stone, which represents the Buddha seated under the Bodhi Tree in a pose known as bhumisparsha mudra (Earth-touching mode). It is believed that Ashoka collected seven of the eight relics of Gautama Buddha, and redistributed them across 84,000 stupas that he ordered to be constructed around the world. Chinese pilgrims Faxian and Xuanzang visited India centuries later, they reported that most of the ancient sites were in ruin.

Annually in Sri Lanka and China, tooth relics would be paraded through the streets.