Ahead of his one-day long visit to Lumbini, Prime Minister Modi said that he was forward to meeting Nepalese PM Sher Bahadur Deuba after his “productive” discussions during the latter’s visit to India last month.
Highlights
- On Vaishakha Buddha Purnima, PM Modi will visit Nepal, and offer prayers at Mayadevi temple.
- Modi will also hold talks with Nepal counterpart Sher Bahadur Deuba to ‘boosten ties’.
- PM will also lay foundation of center for Buddhist culture and heritage in Lumbini.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for the construction of a unique center for Buddhist Culture and Heritage within the Lumbini Monastic Zone in Nepal on Monday on the occasion of Vaishakha Buddha Purnima.
Ahead of his visit, the PM said in a statement that his visit is intended to further deepen the “time-honored” linkages between the two countries, adding both sides will continue to build on the shared understanding to expand ties in multiple areas, including hydropower and connectivity.
This is PM Modi’s fifth visit to the neighboring country since 2014 and the first for any PM to visit Lumbini. Modi’s Nepal counterpart Sher Bahadur Deuba had earlier paid a visit to India in August 2017 and again in April 2022.
What is on the agenda today
- PM Modi will visit the sacred Mayadevi temple to offer prayers. Prime Minister will also deliver an address at a Buddha Jayanti event organized by the Lumbini Development Trust.
- It is learn that Modi will also be lighting a butter lamp in front of the Ashoka pillar, and water a Bodhi tree which was gifted by him during his visit to Nepal in 2014.
- The two prime ministers will hold talks in Lumbini with a focus on further expanding cooperation in multiple areas, including hydropower and connectivity. Deuba will host a lunch in honor of Modi and his delegation.
- The prime minister will also participate in the foundation laying ceremony of a center for Buddhist culture and heritage in Lumbini.
Bi-lateral talks
Ahead of his one-day long visit to Lumbini, Prime Minister Modi said that he was forward to meeting Nepalese PM Sher Bahadur Deuba after his “productive” discussions during the latter’s visit to India last month.
“Our ties with Nepal are unparalleled. The civilisational and people-to-people contacts between India and Nepal form the enduring edifice of our close relationship,” Modi said in his departure statement.
“My visit is intended to celebrate and further deepen these time-honoured linkages that have been fostered through centuries and recorded in our long history of inter-mingling,” he said.
It is learn that some MoUs on cooperation in cultural and educational sectors are expected to be exchanged between the two countries after the Modi-Deuba talks.
Vaishakha Buddha Purnima Divas
The significance of the timing of the Prime Minister’s visit to Nepal is to coincide with the inauguration of the Lumbini Buddhist Center with the Holy Vaishakha Buddha Purnima Divas. The day is recognized as the thrice blessed day that marks the Birth, Enlightenment, and Mahaparinirvana of Lord Buddha.
While Buddha was born in Lumbini in Nepal, he attained enlightenment in Bodhgaya in Bihar, preached his first sermon at Sarnath, and attained Nirvana in Kushinagar, in Uttar Pradesh. Lumbini is the holy place where according to Buddhist tradition, Queen Mahamayadevi gave birth to Siddhartha Gautama at around 623 BC. Lord Buddha, was born in the famous gardens of Lumbini, which soon became a place of pilgrimage.
Among the pilgrims was the Indian emperor Ashoka, who erected one of his commemorative pillars there. The site is now being developed as a Buddhist pilgrimage center, where the archaeological remains associated with the birth of the Lord Buddha form a central feature.
Some of the other Viharas and Monasteries in the area are Myanmar’s Golden Temple, Tara Foundation Temple, the Sri Lanka Monastery, the Korean Temple (Dae Sung Shakya), and the Cambodian Monastery, and the Vietnamese Phat Quoc Tu Temple.
Lumbini is one of the holiest and most important places in Nepal as a result of which it was included in the list of World Heritage areas by UNESCO.
Land-locked Nepal relies heavily on India for the transportation of goods and services. Nepal’s access to the sea is through India, and it imports a predominant proportion of its requirements from and through India. The India-Nepal Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1950 forms the bedrock of the special relations between the two countries.
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