Life in Nepal: Lord Buddha is Nepali

Caption (1) Inside Patan Museum (2) Lumbini
Somehow, I used to believe that Lord Buddha was Indian. But after my recent visit to Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha, I was enlightened. Lord Buddha is Nepali because he was born in Nepal, even though the place where he was born not so far from India. The birthplace of his mother Maya is not far from the Lord Buddha’s birthplace. Now I am absolutely convinced that Lord Buddha is Nepali. I saw the exact location where he was born.
In fact, Thai Buddhists didn’t think much about the nationality of Lord Buddha. In Buddhism, we have been told to focus more on Lord Buddha’s teaching not his life. I never thought much about Lord Buddha’s history. But I must confess that I was very excited to see his birthplace.
I was lucky that I accompanied READ Nepal’s staff to a community resource center’s training in Butwal, which is around 1 hour and a half from Lumbini. On a Saturday’s afternoon after the participants went on a field trip, I decided to take a personal journey to Lumbini to see where Lord Buddha was born.
There I saw traces of old stupas, constructed by the Great King Asoka who was a devout Buddhist. There were many new temples constructed by various embassies in Lumbini compound. One of the highlights is of course Thai Buddhism temple. But I could not walk or rickshaw (I didn’t have a car) to Thai temple site on the day of my visit because of the heavy raining. It was impossible to walk or rickshaw through the muddy road on that day.
Although majority of Nepali are Hindu, the presence of Buddhism influence in Nepal is still widely evident. There are many Buddhism temples; most of them are Mahayana school. Thai Buddhism belongs to Theravada. In fact, I can also relate to Hinduism because Thai students studied Ramayana, a Hindu scripture. Therefore, I learn about Hindu God and Goddesses and, in fact, many Thais also worshiped these Gods. My Nepali friend here was surprised the extent to which Thai students have to study Ramayana. She told me that Thai students seem to study more Ramayana than Nepali students are required to because she told me she was required to study only two pages of Ramayana during her school years but I remembered that when I was a student, I had to read almost the whole (more simplified) text of Ramayana. (I assume that because Nepali curriculum is based on British education.)
Another must-see destination of whoever interested in Buddhism is Patan Museum in Patan Dhoka, which is 30-hour drive from Kathmandu. Located in an old town of Patan, the museum is simple yet spectacular. There are statues of Sakyamuni Buddha and Maitreya or Buddha who will come in the future.