Nepal Buddhists demonstrate for sanctity of Lumbini

Kathmandu: Hundreds of Buddhists staged a protest in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu on Dec. 7 to protest against Maoist Chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s connection to a development project in Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha.

Lhakpa Sherpa of the Buddhism Preservation Stakeholders Committee said politicians were breaching the sanctity of a religious place like Lumbini by transforming it into a tourism destination.

The committee was formed by the government to develop Lumbini, 240 kilometres southwewest of Kathmandu, as a world Buddhist tourism destination.
Demonstrators held placards demanding Dahal be removed from the position of director of the Lumbini Development Committee. They have demanded a follower of Buddhism should be appointed to the post.

Dahal, who is coordinator of the development committee, lead the decade-long Maoist insurgency in Nepal, which ended in 2006 after the signing of a peace deal with the government. 16,000 people were killed in the conflict.

Meanwhile,The Korea Times writes-

South Korea has agreed to offer $2 million to develop Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha, as a city of peace.The proposal, entitled a “Master Plan for the Lumbini World Peace City Preservation and Development,”has already been accepted by Nepal’s Ministry of Culture, the sole entity to execute the project. The project is now under consideration by Nepal’s Ministry of Finance.

According to the South Korean proposal which was submitted to the Nepalese government by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), South Korea will pay $2 million to help carry out the plan for the peace city.

KOICA said it will develop the plan, paying keen attention to the archaeological, environmental and cultural sensitivity of Lumbini. The Nepalese government has formed a high-level committee under the chairmanship of UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to develop Lumbini as city of peace.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is also interested in the project. The team led by Chairman Dahal visited New York in September and held a meeting with Ban, seeking his support.

KOICA, in cooperation with the Nepalese government, will begin drawing up the plan in mid-January 2012 and will complete the work over the next 18 months.According to the proposal, the South Korean government will dispatch about 143 experts from various fields to map out the plan. The experts will be urban designers, architects, local planners, road and traffic engineers, tourism and cultural analysts, environment and disaster specialists and financiers.