Life of the Buddha

During one week I followed the Buddhist pilgrimage circuit of the four major events of the Buddha's life.

The Buddha was born in Lumbini in the 6th century BCE, a prince named Siddharta Gautama. Now Lumbini is in Nepal, near the border with India. The Maya Devi temple, named after his mother, was built on the location, and is now surrounded by monastery ruins, prayer flags, and modern monasteries built by pilgrims from around the world. In the 2nd century BCE, Emperor Ashoka, who is the reason for the spread of Buddhism around the world, made a pilgrimage here and left one of his famous columns.

Lumbini was also the site of one of my worst travel experiences ever, when I caught someone watching through the bathroom vent while I was showering. I'm sure he was working there, or had some relationship with the staff, although the managers all denied knowing who he was. Obviously, after shouting at the managers for a while, I stormed out to another hotel. Lumbini Guest House: Do Not Stay!

Bodhgaya is the holiest pilgrimage site for Buddhists, because this is where the Buddha achieved enlightenment, or nirvana, while sitting in meditation underneath a bodhi tree. A descendant of that tree is in front of the Mahabodhi Temple in the photo. Surrounding the temple are numerous votive stupas built by pilgrims. Many of them are made of rubble of ruined stupas, with no apparent interest in putting puzzle pieces in order. Ashoka visited here too, and built an arch. Bodhgaya also has a huge Buddha statue, where I scorched my feet on a very brief attempt to approach the statue properly barefoot. The people who constructed the walkways in Bodhnath were definitely not thinking: red sandstone gets really hot in the sun, and even white marble is too uncomfortable. Black marble = egg-frying (or foot-frying) hot! I also attended a zazen session here--sitting meditation in the Japanese Zen Buddhist tradition.

Sarnath, where the Buddha began to teach the Middle Way, is filled with gorgeous monastery ruins, the ruins of the huge Dhamekh Stupa with unique carvings, another Ashokan column, and a temple built by a Sri Lankan pilgrim, with lovely frescoes by Japanese artist Kosetsu Nosi. The archaeology museum here holds the famous Ashokan lion capital, now a symbol of India on all paper currency. The sculpture stands alone in craft and preservation; aside from a broken jaw on one lion, and other minor bumps, it looks like it was carved last week. I was also fascinated with a large sculpture of a parasol--important in Buddhist symbolism--but other visitors to the museum seemed much more fascinated with the foreigner.

The Buddha took mahaparinirvana (the great final nirvana)

in Kushinagar, when he was an old man. A person can achieve nirvana, or escape from suffering, during her life; someone who dies in this state achieves parinirvana, and escapes from the cycle of rebirths. As far as I know, only the Buddha claims mahaparinirvana. A stupa was built on the site, and a temple to house the 5th century CE statue, carved from red sandstone, and now covered in gold leaf by pilgrims. Here also are the ruins of a huge stupa, and a temple built on the site of the Buddha's last sermon.

All of these sites were windy, dry, dusty, and hot--around 40 to 45 Celsius. While traveling around by bus, train, and foot, the parched landscape caused me some deep anxiety. I wonder if this was a completely unfamiliar landscape to me, having grown up in the middle of vast amounts of water in the Canadian Great Lakes, when two weeks without rain is considered "dry." Or perhaps this was some other deeper fear of the famine that is often associated with such a landscape. I've included photos of the dust blowing across the road, and the necessity of covering up from the sun and blowing dust. No, I don't look like a "terrorist," I look like someone trying to keep cool, and to keep dust out of my mouth, nose, and ears. It seems counterproductive, but covering yourself from the sun in such a heat makes a big difference. Drinking 4 litres of water a day also helps.