My friends and I left Kusinaga on February 16 in the morning at 5: 45 am and arrived at the border town sonali at 8:30 am. We went together to Lumbini where Siddhartha Gautama was born in 623 B.C. The distance between lumbini and border check point is 27 kilometers. Lumbini is situated at the foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal. In the Buddha’s time, Lumbini was a beautiful garden full of green and Sal trees. The birthplace of the Buddha, Lumbini, is one of the four holy places of Buddhism. It is said in the Parinibbana Sutta that Buddha himself identified four places of future pilgrimage: the sites of his birth, Enlightenment, First Discourse, and death. In Lumbini, we took several photographs to remember the place after our return. We saw the Asoka pillar, the image of mother Maya giving birth to Prince Siddhartha Gautama, Our Lord Buddha, the water tank where the body prince was cleansed, the seven lotuses as symbols of the seven steps that the prince took soon after he was born, the Nepalese monastery, Tibetan Monastery, Korea Monastery, Thailand Monastery, Srilanka Monastery, Myanmar government’s Lawka manisula pagoda and Monastery, and the Panditarama meditation center. At 3:00 pm, we come back to Kusinaga. The visit to Lumbini was very interesting and enjoyable. It gave us not only religious knowledge but also pleasure. I shall never forget it throughout my life. If possible, I would like to go next time for praying to be healthy,Wealthy, peace of mind and to attain the Nibbana.
May the Buddha sasana last forever and ever.
Written by Ashin Sandima( Dhammalayeik)
