Buddhist Conclave.

Ministry of Tourism, India hosted 600 scholars and Buddhists around the world for a dedication of the Maha Bodhi stupa in Bodh Gaya, India during Feb. 17-19, 2004. The first two days were engaged in Buddhist Conclave at Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi. The President came to inaugurate the conclave along with the Indian dignitaries involved. H.H.the Dalai Lama was invited to give a speech encouraging us Buddhists to be well in our practice. Then the conclave split into various sessions held simultaneously. Many papers were presented in these sessions.

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The crowd were moved to Bodh Gaya by chartered flight and by special train, the train service was impressive but the timing was so poor, most of the participants who go by train ended up in Bodh Gaya 5 hours behind the scheduled time.

The actual dedication ceremony was held on Feb. 19 at the Maha Bodhi Stupa site, in Bodh Gaya amidst dignitaries and Buddhists from more than 30 countries. The atmosphere was confusion yet colorful.

Though the Indian goverment set aside a large sum of budget to host this gigantic conclave with the hope to booze tourism. Many Buddhists were not totally happy with the treatment they received. It clearly reflected the absence of Buddhist participation (from various traditions) in the preparation process.

There was a complaint by the local Buddhists calling attention to the fact that the Maha Bodhi itself is run by Hindu majority. The unhappy little stories we heard from the arrangement of the conclave witnessed that there must be some truth in the complaint.

Below is the presentation Bhikkhuni Dhammananda gave in session V on "Buddhist Pilgrimage to India" at the conclave.

My first trip to India was way back in 1962 when I came to study at Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan as a young freshy. Then from 1980 onward I have been coming back to India every year, either to attend conferences or simply bringing a tour group here to walk the path that the Buddha walked.

Before I took my early retirement from the university in 2000, I spent 3 years as the director of India Studies Center at Thammasat University in Bangkok. During these 3 years became much closer again to the Indian community and my Indian connections became much alive.

In this presentation, I would like to bring to your attention a very specific site of pilgrimage--Kapilvastu.

As Buddhists we have read much about Kapilvastu being the home town of the Prince Siddhartha who later became the Buddha. We tend to take it for granted that we know Kapilvastu very well. But some of you may be surprised to know that historically and archaeologically it is hardly one hundred years ago that we discovered Kapilvastu.

Not only Kapilvastu but all the Buddhist sites for pilgrimage have been discovered only very recently Starting from the discovery of the Asokan pillar in Lumbini and then the historical and archaeological study based heavily on the records of the Chinese monks Fa Hien 400 AD. and 635 AD. (Hsuan Tsang.)

Hsuan Tsang was more precise in his detail description of the routes and the distance he took when he visited the various Buddhist sites in his time..

All the sites mentioned by Fa Hien seems to agree well with the later records of Hsuan Tsang, except one place ... Kapilvastu.

Apparently from Savatthi (Sravasti) one seems to go north, where as the other seems to go south to what was supposed to be Kapilvastu for both of them.

Later scholars were puzzled by this marked difference.

Previously it was accepted that Kapilvastu is in Nepal border, in a place where the local Nepali called Taulihawah. I proposed to call the Kapilvastu in Nepal Kapilvastu I. Ruins discovered at this place is explained as the original palace of Kzing Suddhodana.

In 1890s another site was discovered in northern part of India in a place called Piprahwa. What is interesting about this site is that they also discovered the relics of the Buddha in an urn with clear brahmi inscription stating that the relics contained within belongs to the Buddha of the Sakyas.

The relics were given to the King Rama V of Thailand whereas the urn is kept in the museum of India. The relics were later distributed to Mongolia, Japan and Sri Lanka. The remaining ones were kept on the Golden Mount in the heart of Bangkok.

Both governments did not seem to pay due respect to it. There was one puzzle to the discovery namely the level of the soil which they discovered the urn and the relics were not of the Buddha's time but at least 300 years later. That is more of Asokan period.

Piprahwa now already known as Kapilvastu, I shall call it Kapilvastu II was again excavated by Mr. Srivastava of the Department of archaeology as recent as 1980s. Most interestingly he further discovered more relics in two urns ten relics in one urn and twelve in the other, the urns are the same shape as discovered a century ago.

In my longer research which I submitted to Thammasat University, Bangkok, I proposed that both sites were in the same Kapilvastu Kingdom. Buddhists will be familiar with the story of Vidudabha, the Buddha's nephew born of King Pasendi of Kosala and a Sakya princess who was born of a servant. Prince Vidudabha was not welcomed by the Sakyans of Kapilvastu because of the impure blood from his mother's side. When Vidudabha learnt of his life secret, he was angry and vowed to wipe out the Sakyas. After having removed his own royal father from the throne, he wanted to take revenge. Three times he came but the Buddha intervened, three times he had to return, out of respect for the Buddha, his uncle. But the fourth time when he came again with his mighty troop, the Buddha withdrew from the scene, so the king invaded Kapilvastu and literally wiped out the Sakyas.

However, there was a remnant of the Sakyas who escaped and survived the holocaust and started building a new settlement. This is confirmed by the Pali text when the Buddha was cremated, his relics were divided into 8 portions, one of them went to the Sakyas of Kapilvastu. Which Kapilvastu? This is not Kapilvastu I in Nepal but Kapilvastu II in India.

It will explain also why we never discover relics in Kapilvastu I because Kapilvastu I was deserted before the Buddha passed away. The Buddha once visited Kapilvastu I with Ananda he was sad to see the palace deserted.

And of course the relics were taken back to Kapilvastu II, the new settlement in India. Now come to the practical observation for the Minister of Culture and Tourism. These two Kapilvastus though hardly 9 miles apart, these is no connecting road. As it happens very few tourists and pilgrims ever visited these two Kapilvastus.

At present, we have to take the dirt road from Lumbini towards the west in order to go to Kapilvastu I (Taulihawa) in Nepal side, it takes minimum 2 hrs. Then return to India through Sonauli and then proceed again by dirt road towards the west to Kapilvastu II (Piprahwa) in India. One has to have at least 2 days to cover both Kapilvastus. If a special route can be established between these 2 Kapilvastus which I already mentioned earlier that they are only 9 miles apart, then we can have a complete triangular route for the Buddhists. The benefits will go to the people of both India and Nepal, and the comfort will go to the Buddhist pilgrims. At present tours include neither kapilvasta I nor II in their agenda.

February 17-19, 2004

Session IV (09.30-11.30 hrs.) Hall no. 5 Vigyan Bhavan Theme "Buddhist Pilgrimage to India--Issues and Prospects"

Ven. Bhulkkhunl Dhammananda (Dr. C. Kabilsingh) [e-mail] Thailand.