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Buddha’s Birthplace, Under Construction
Posted by Guus Koelman on May 17th, 2008 | 3 comments | 917 views
Buddha’s Birthplace, Under Construction
When you arrive in the Nepali town of Lumbini you would not expect it to be a town with one of the most important religious sites in the world. Lumbini consists of pretty much one street, a few hotels, shops and huts made of straw and mud.
Nevertheless, this is the place where according to archeologists Gautama Siddhartha Buddha was born. There is even a stone which marks the exact site of his birth in 563 BC.
This temple is surrounded by a sacred garden and around this garden there is a huge park called the Lumbini development zone. Thirty years ago the UN decided that this site should be developed to become a site where there is room for Buddhist cultures from all over the world. They gave the famous Japanese architect Kenzo Tange the assignment to design a plan.
After a few years the UN left the development to the Nepalese government. According to some of the people I spoke to, this is causing a lot of the delay. According to them, the Nepali officials are not capable of developing a site like this. Corruption and an instable political situation cause much of the problems and delays.
The individual temples and monasteries on the sites are build with the help of foundations or countries. Many temples are not yet finished and are under construction.
This is the Korean temple, construction started here in 1990. The temple is build by the Korean Buddhist Society, the abbot Gakhyon Bubshin is responsible for the project. There is still a lot of work to do as you can see in this pictures.
The Geden international institute and the Rabten Foundation from Europe are building a temple in a more classic style. The monk responsible for the project explains more in this video:
When you arrive in the Nepali town of Lumbini you would not expect it to be a town with one of the most important religious sites in the world. Lumbini consists of pretty much one street, a few hotels, shops and huts made of straw and mud.
Nevertheless, this is the place where according to archeologists Gautama Siddhartha Buddha was born. There is even a stone which marks the exact site of his birth in 563 BC.
This temple is surrounded by a sacred garden and around this garden there is a huge park called the Lumbini development zone. Thirty years ago the UN decided that this site should be developed to become a site where there is room for Buddhist cultures from all over the world. They gave the famous Japanese architect Kenzo Tange the assignment to design a plan.
After a few years the UN left the development to the Nepalese government. According to some of the people I spoke to, this is causing a lot of the delay. According to them, the Nepali officials are not capable of developing a site like this. Corruption and an instable political situation cause much of the problems and delays.
The individual temples and monasteries on the sites are build with the help of foundations or countries. Many temples are not yet finished and are under construction.
This is the Korean temple, construction started here in 1990. The temple is build by the Korean Buddhist Society, the abbot Gakhyon Bubshin is responsible for the project. There is still a lot of work to do as you can see in this pictures.
The Geden international institute and the Rabten Foundation from Europe are building a temple in a more classic style. The monk responsible for the project explains more in this video:
Comments
Thanks for showing. It´s nice to see it.
# posted by ASIIMWE JOB on June 9th, 2008 1:51 pm
even if am not budist this is good and give the world hope.
keep doing doing more for religions sake
keep doing doing more for religions sake
# posted by sureña-arg. on May 21st, 2008 4:38 am
Thanks , for showing.
gracias por mostrar.
gracias por mostrar.