“Your life is the message to the world. Make sure it’s inspiring.”

Lumbini is widely accepted as the birthplace of Buddha and has become a pilgrimage site for Buddhists around the world. There are temples representing over a dozen countries, and it was interesting to see the different representations of Buddha, the styles of architecture, and the diverse rituals that were performed based on the temples origin and type of Buddhist sect it represented.

On my first evening I met up with some fellow travelers from my vipassana course and walked to the most famous temple which is now an archaeological site. Just last year a shrine was discovered under the temple that dates back before 550 BCE, making it the earliest Buddhist structure ever found. There was a ceremony going on that evening, and as always, many people were giving offerings and lighting candles.

Though most people only spend a day or two in the small village of Lumbini visiting the temples, Milea and I decided to spend a few extra nights just hanging out, eating cheap street food, and exploring the even smaller farming villages a few kilometers away. Though Lumbini attracts western and Asian tourists alike, these villages obviously aren’t use to people straying from the main road, and we got a good look at life in the Nepali Terai.