Lumbinī is a Buddhist pilgrimage site in the Rupandehi District of Province No. 5 in Nepal. It is the place where, according to Buddhist tradition, Queen Mahamayadevi gave birth to Siddhartha Gautama in 563 BCE. Gautama, who achieved Enlightenment some time around 528 BCE, became the Buddha and founded Buddhism. Lumbini is one of many magnets for pilgrimage that sprang up in places pivotal to the life of the Buddha.
A pratyekabuddha or paccekabuddha, literally "a lone buddha", "a buddha on their own", "a private buddha", or "a silent buddha", is one of three types of enlightened beings according to some schools of Buddhism. The other two buddha types are the arhat and the sammāsambuddha.
Buddhism in Nepal started spreading since the reign of Ashoka through Indian and Tibetan missionaries. The Kiratas were the first people in Nepal who embraced Gautama Buddha’s teachings, followed by the Licchavis and Newars. Buddha was born in Lumbini in the Shakya Kingdom. Lumbini is considered to lie in present-day Rupandehi district, Lumbini zone of Nepal. Buddhism is the second-largest religion in Nepal. According to 2001 census, 10.74% of Nepal's population practiced Buddhism, consisting mainly of Tibeto-Burman-speaking ethnicities, the Newar. However, in the 2011 census, the Buddhist population in Nepal was just 9% of the country population. It has not been possible to assign with certainty the year in which Prince Siddhartha, the birth name of the Buddha, was born, it is usually placed at around 563 BCE. In Nepal's hill and mountain regions Hinduism has absorbed Buddhist tenets to such an extent that in many cases they have shared deities as well as temples. For instance, the Muktinath Temple is sacred and a common house of worship for both Hindus and Buddhists.
K. Sri Dhammananda was a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk and scholar.
Bhikkhu Bodhi, born Jeffrey Block, is an American Theravada Buddhist monk, ordained in Sri Lanka and currently teaching in the New York and New Jersey area. He was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publication Society and has edited and authored several publications grounded in the Theravada Buddhist tradition.
A sayadaw is a Burmese Buddhist title used to reference the senior monk or abbot of a monastery. Some distinguished sayadaws would often be referred to as a sayadawgyi (ဆရာတော်ကြီး, as a sign of reverence. The terms "sayadaw" and "sayadawgyi" originally corresponded to the senior monks who taught the former Burmese kings. These sayadaws may be influential teachers of Buddhism and also important meditation practitioners. They usually are abbots of monasteries or monastery networks with many resident monks and a lay following.
The most important places of pilgrimage in Buddhism are located in the Gangetic plains of Northern India and Southern Nepal, in the area between New Delhi and Rajgir. This is the area where Gautama Buddha lived and taught, and the main sites connected to his life are now important places of pilgrimage for both Buddhists and Hindus. However, many countries that are or were predominantly Buddhist have shrines and places which can be visited as a pilgrimage.
The Buddha was born into a noble family of the kshatriya varna in Kapilvastu district of Lumbini zone, Nepal in 563 BCE.. He was called Siddhartha Gautama in his childhood. His father was king Suddhodana, leader of the Shakya clan in what was the growing state of Kosala, and his mother was queen Maya Devi. According to Buddhist legend, the baby exhibited the marks of a great man. A prophecy indicated that if the child stayed at home he was destined to become a world ruler. If the child left home, however, he would become a universal spiritual leader. To make sure the boy would be a great king and world ruler, his father isolated him in his palace and he was raised by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati, after his mother died just seven days after childbirth.
Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery near Boudhanath, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal. It has ties to both the Kagyu and Nyingma schools, hence the combined Ka-Nying in the name. Shedrub Ling means “sanctuary for learning and practice.”
Witiyala Seewalie Thera is the founder and chief incumbent priest of Minnesota Buddhist Vihara. Currently, he is serving the Buddhist spiritual needs for people in six midwestern states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska.
Buddha Dharma wa Nepāl Bhāsā was the first magazine in Nepal Bhasa. It was published in 1925 from Kolkata, India by Dharmaditya Dharmacharya.
The International Theravāda Buddhist Missionary University is on the Dhammapãla Hill, Mayangon Township, in Yangon, Myanmar. It was inaugurated on 6th waxing moon of Nadaw, 1360 ME.
Dharmaditya Dharmacharya (1902–1963) was a Nepalese author, Buddhist scholar and language activist. He worked to develop Nepal Bhasa and revive Theravada Buddhism when Nepal was ruled by the Rana dynasty and both were dangerous activities, and was consequently jailed.
Aniruddha Mahathera was a Nepalese Buddhist monk and the Sangha Nayak (Patriarch) of Nepal from 1998 until his death in 2003. He was one of the most important figures in the revival of Theravada Buddhism in Nepal and the development of Lumbini, the Buddha's birthplace in southern Nepal, into a center of international pilgrimage.
Buddhaghosa Mahasthavir was a Nepalese Buddhist monk who worked to revive Theravada Buddhism in Nepal in the 1940s in the face of suppression by the Rana regime.
The banishment of Buddhist monks from Nepal was part of a campaign by thee erstwhile Rana government to suppress the resurgence of Theravada Buddhism in Nepal in the early decades of the 20th century. There were two deportations of monks from Kathmandu, in 1926 and 1944.
Pranidhipurna Mahavihar is a Theravada Buddhist monastery in Balambu, Kathmandu which was a key base in the revival of Theravada Buddhism in Nepal in the 1940s.
Bodagama Chandima was born on 3 February 1957 at Thanamalwila in southern Sri Lanka. As of 2015 he taught Theravada Buddhism in Taiwan. With a group of Taiwanese Buddhists, he founded the Theravada Samadhi Education Association in Taipei.
Ashin Nandamālābhivamsa is a Burmese Theravada Buddhist monk. He is rector of Sītagū International Buddhist Academy in Sagaing and, since 2005, also of International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University.
