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Post subject: ......Like Buddha in Nepal
 Posted: Nov 23, 2005 - 10:22 AM
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Joined: Sep 08, 2003
Posts: 205
Location: US
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Boy, who is meditating like Buddha in Nepal
London: A 15-year old boy, who has reportedly been meditating beneath a pipal tree for the past six months in the dense jungles of Bara district in southern parts of Nepal, without eating and drinking or even relieving himself, is attracting thousands of curious visitors every day, who believe that he may be the incarnation of The Buddha.
Before sitting for meditation, the boy Ram Bomjon is said to have told his family that he would meditate for six years.
The fervour increased last week when a snake is said to have bitten Ram, and a curtain was drawn around him. After five days it was opened and the boy said: “Tell the people not to call me a Buddha. I don't have the Buddha's energy. I am at the level of rinpoche (lesser divinity). A snake bit me but I do not need treatment. I need six years of deep meditation.”
The visitors believe that Ram is a reincarnation of Lord Buddha, as a light emanates from his forehead. “It looks a bit like when you shine a torch through your hand,” The Telegraph quoted Tek Bahadur Lama, a member of the committee responsible for dealing with the growing number of visitors from India and elsewhere in Nepal, as saying.
Photographs of Ram Bomjon, available for five rupees from his makeshift shrine, have become ubiquitous across the region. “Far and wide, it's the only topic of conversation,” a local journalist said, adding that no indication had yet emerged of him breaking his fast or moving, even to relieve himself.
Santa Raj Subedi, the chief government official in Bara district, has appealed to the Kathmandu administration for assistance in dealing with the influx of visitors, and for a team of scientists to examine the case.
A team of local doctors who recently visited the boy, confirmed that he was alive.
According to the paper, the popularity of the boy is partly because the scene resembled an episode in the life of Buddha, who was born 160 miles away around 543 BC. The Buddha achieved enlightenment when he meditated beneath a sacred pipal tree for 49 days, and the boy is also sitting beneath a pipal tree, in the same posture as the Buddha is depicted.
Ram's mother Maya Devi said: “He's definitely got thinner. Early in the morning he looks sunken, like there's no blood in him, but as the sun rises he seems to get brighter and brighter.”
A thriving market has reportedly grown in the once pristine forest, supplying pilgrims with everything from chewing tobacco and bicycle repairs, to incense and sacred amulets.
ANI. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 29, 2005 - 02:50 AM
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Joined: Sep 08, 2003
Posts: 205
Location: US
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| Tip:::: His mother, Maya Devi -- the same name as that of Buddha's mother >>>>>>>>>> |
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 29, 2005 - 09:37 AM
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Joined: Aug 01, 2003
Posts: 288
Location: United States
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The boy is certainly not a reincarnation of "the" Buddha (Siddarth Gautam). It is believed that Gautam Buddha achieved "Moksha" aka "Nirvana" aka "Mukti" thru his experience of enlightenment. Therefore the claim of his reincarnation makes no sense and lacks if any credibility.
Just my two cents worth. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 29, 2005 - 12:51 PM
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Joined: Sep 08, 2003
Posts: 205
Location: US
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Post subject: Latest news: Nepal Buddha boy
Posted: Dec 01, 2005 - 09:56 PM
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Joined: Sep 08, 2003
Posts: 205
Location: US
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Scientists to check Nepal Buddha boy
By Navin Singh Khadka
BBC News, Kathmandu
Word has spread quickly about the teenager's meditation
A meditating teenage boy in south-central Nepal is drawing the attention of scientists after attracting huge crowds in the past six months and earning himself the name Buddha-reincarnate.
They are mulling over how to examine him without disturbing his meditation.
Ram Bahadur Bamjan's friends, relatives and managers say he has been meditating without drinking water for six months now and that he will carry on for another six years until he gains enlightenment.
Siddartha Gautam, who later attained Mahanirvana and became the Buddha, was born in 560 BC.
Word spread quickly about the teenager and people around Ratanapuri village in Bara district began to visit Bamjan, 15, who has been sitting cross-legged in a traditional Buddha posture under a peepal tree.
Bamjan's eyes are closed and his body firm, encased in a whitish shawl.
His hair has grown long and has almost covered his eyes. Villagers say he has grown weak.
His picture has been appearing regularly in newspapers and people now look for updates on him.
Many around Bara worship him as the reincarnation of the Buddha.
The tree is festooned and the air has the smell of incense sticks.
The dramatically increased movement of people has generated economic opportunities.
Makeshift shops have sprung up and offerings in cash and kind are on the rise.
I sometimes go to see him but he does not talk to me: Maya Devi Tamang, mother
"Almost 500,000 rupees ($7,000) have been deposited in the bank by devotees," says Prajapati Koirala, a senior government administrator in the area. That is apart from the donations visitors make on the spot.
Local people have formed a committee to make sure Bamjan gets the right environment to meditate and to manage the influx of visitors and the offerings they make.
The most frequently asked questions: Does he remain seated like that and meditate even at night? Does he not eat or drink at all?
Some say he has eaten nothing since he began his meditation, others that he used to take a milk-like liquid from the roots of the peepal tree at the beginning.
Most people can live without food for several weeks, with the body drawing on its fat and protein stores. But the average human can survive for only three to four days without water.
He never touched alcohol:
Salden Lama, schoolteacher
Followers of holy men and ascetics have often ascribed extraordinary powers to them, but such powers are seldom subject to scientific inspection.
But the number of people seeking real evidence here is increasing.
Under pressure, locals have asked the administration to find out the truth.
"We have agreed to conduct a scientific examination on him," said the local administrator, Mr Koirala.
The challenge is to do so without touching him.
Mr Koirala said scientists from the Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology were due to arrive to conduct the examination.
It remains unclear how they will do it.
"At least the scientists will be able to see whether he meditates the whole night or not," said Deekpal Chaudhary, who sells incense sticks to visitors.
Bamjan's family members say they have no idea what is going on.
His mother fainted when she found out her son had undertaken an indefinite meditation.
Many worship Ram Bahadur Bamjan as the reincarnation of Buddha
"I sometimes go to see him but he does not talk to me," said Maya Devi Tamang.
"I don't know what will happen to him but I know that god will help him."
The name of Buddha's mother was also Maya Devi, a point Bamjan's devotees have stressed.
The family said Bamjan was different from his four brothers. They said he did not speak much and stayed aloof.
"He never touched alcohol," said his primary education teacher, Salden Lama.
Relatives and neighbours said Bamjan undertook meditation when he returned from a tour of Lumbini, where Buddha was born, and monasteries in Pokhara in Nepal and Dehradun in India.
Friend and cousin Prem Lama remembers Bamjan saying that he did not want people to call him Buddha as he had only reached primary enlightenment.
Bamjan has spoken only a few times since he began the meditation, according to Prem Lama.
He said the first time Bamjan spoke was when a snake bit him around a month ago.
Bamjan took the incident as his second test, which he must overcome, Prem Lama said.
In the first test he was also bitten by a snake - three months after he began the meditation.
The second snake-bite episode led to increased curiosity.
After being bitten, Bamjan was said to have asked his aides to put a curtain around him.
"In less than a week he asked us to take the curtain away," Prem Lama said.
Now another curtain is to be drawn around Bamjan - for the scientific examination. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Dec 04, 2005 - 11:44 AM
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Joined: Sep 08, 2003
Posts: 205
Location: US
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Boy hailed as a modern Buddha 'has been fasting for six months'
By Justin Huggler, Asia Correspondent
Published: 02 December 2005
Scientists in Nepal are planning to examine claims by a 15-year-old boy, hailed by pilgrims from across the country as a modern-day Buddha, that he has been meditating without drinking water for six months.
Ram Bahadur Bamjan sits cross-legged, in the pose of a Buddhist ascetic, beneath a peepul tree in the village of Ratanapuri south of Kathmandu. His family and devotees say he has not moved since he sat to meditate six months ago. They say he eats and drinks nothing, and does not relieve himself. His hair has grown long and shaggy and hangs down over his eyes. He has only spoken rarely since he began meditating.
The incident that sealed his fame in Nepal came weeks ago when a poisonous snake bit him. After being hidden behind a curtain by his supporters for five days, reports say he came out and said: "A snake bit me but I do not need treatment. I need six years of deep meditation."
The Buddha, who was born Siddhartha Gautama in Nepal in 560 BC, meditated and fasted under a tree until he achieved enlightenment and founded the Buddhist religion.
The teenager has said he will meditate and fast for six years, until he achieves enlightenment. But he has also told followers that he is not a Buddha but a rinpoche, a lesser degree of holiness. "I don't have the Buddha's energy," he said.
Now scientists want to investigate the claims that the boy is surviving without drinking water. Most people can survive without food for prolonged periods, drawing on their bodies' stores of fat. But it is not believed possible to survive without water.
Some of the boy's devotees say that at first he drank a milk-like substance from the roots of the tree, but more recently has done without any liquid.
Claims by holy men to have unusual powers are common in south Asia, but they are rarely subjected to scientific scrutiny. But Bamjan has become so famous that people are asking for proof. A team from the Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology is to investigate. They will have to observe without touching him to avoid breaking his meditation.
Their study could prove controversial. A lucrative business has grown up around the meditating boy. Photographs of him are on sale at the shrine that has sprung up in honour of him. Local authorities say some 500,000 Nepali rupees (£4,000) have been deposited in the bank by his devotees. Local people have formed a committee to manage the offerings made by pilgrims.
As well as donations, private vendors are said to be making big profits by selling incense sticks and tea to those who visit the shrine. Although the boy's devotees say he fasts and meditates day and night, no one has seen him at night. After dark, a screen is put up around him. The same screen was put up after he was bitten by the snake.
The boy's parents say that they have no more understanding than anyone else of what is really going on with their son. His mother says she fainted when she heard he had started meditating. She says she visits him but that he will not talk even to her.
But those hoping the scientists can put paid to the controversy for good may be disappointed; their observations will be performed behind the same screen that hides Bamjan from onlookers at night.
Scientists in Nepal are planning to examine claims by a 15-year-old boy, hailed by pilgrims from across the country as a modern-day Buddha, that he has been meditating without drinking water for six months.
Ram Bahadur Bamjan sits cross-legged, in the pose of a Buddhist ascetic, beneath a peepul tree in the village of Ratanapuri south of Kathmandu. His family and devotees say he has not moved since he sat to meditate six months ago. They say he eats and drinks nothing, and does not relieve himself. His hair has grown long and shaggy and hangs down over his eyes. He has only spoken rarely since he began meditating.
The incident that sealed his fame in Nepal came weeks ago when a poisonous snake bit him. After being hidden behind a curtain by his supporters for five days, reports say he came out and said: "A snake bit me but I do not need treatment. I need six years of deep meditation."
The Buddha, who was born Siddhartha Gautama in Nepal in 560 BC, meditated and fasted under a tree until he achieved enlightenment and founded the Buddhist religion.
The teenager has said he will meditate and fast for six years, until he achieves enlightenment. But he has also told followers that he is not a Buddha but a rinpoche, a lesser degree of holiness. "I don't have the Buddha's energy," he said.
Now scientists want to investigate the claims that the boy is surviving without drinking water. Most people can survive without food for prolonged periods, drawing on their bodies' stores of fat. But it is not believed possible to survive without water.
Some of the boy's devotees say that at first he drank a milk-like substance from the roots of the tree, but more recently has done without any liquid.
Claims by holy men to have unusual powers are common in south Asia, but they are rarely subjected to scientific scrutiny. But Bamjan has become so famous that people are asking for proof. A team from the Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology is to investigate. They will have to observe without touching him to avoid breaking his meditation.
Their study could prove controversial. A lucrative business has grown up around the meditating boy. Photographs of him are on sale at the shrine that has sprung up in honour of him. Local authorities say some 500,000 Nepali rupees (£4,000) have been deposited in the bank by his devotees. Local people have formed a committee to manage the offerings made by pilgrims.
As well as donations, private vendors are said to be making big profits by selling incense sticks and tea to those who visit the shrine. Although the boy's devotees say he fasts and meditates day and night, no one has seen him at night. After dark, a screen is put up around him. The same screen was put up after he was bitten by the snake.
The boy's parents say that they have no more understanding than anyone else of what is really going on with their son. His mother says she fainted when she heard he had started meditating. She says she visits him but that he will not talk even to her.
But those hoping the scientists can put paid to the controversy for good may be disappointed; their observations will be performed behind the same screen that hides Bamjan from onlookers at night. |
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Post subject: Pilgrims trek to worship a boy they believe is Buddha.......
Posted: Dec 06, 2005 - 01:52 AM
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Joined: Sep 08, 2003
Posts: 205
Location: US
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The Times
December 05, 2005
Pilgrims trek to worship a boy they believe is Buddha
From Raekha Prasad in Bara, Nepal
SOME closed their eyes and clasped their hands in prayer, others knelt and touched their foreheads to the cool earth beneath a canopy of trees deep in the forest of southern Nepal.
By early morning hundreds of people had already reached this hidden spot at the end of a mist-shrouded mud track. All had come to see the teenage boy they believe to be a reincarnation of Buddha, sitting silently beneath a peepul tree.
Since word spread that Ram Bahadur Bamjan, the 16-year-old son of a maize farmer in a nearby village, has not eaten or drunk in the six months that he has been meditating in the lotus position, tens of thousands of devotees from across Nepal and India have flocked to Char Koshe jungle to worship him. The teenager sat in an alcove of exposed peepul roots. His closed eyes were framed by a messy mop of hair, and a brown robe draped over one shoulder exposed his right arm and hand.
Having heard that early morning was the time to witness light emanating from the boy’s brow and hand, the pilgrims had set off before dawn to walk miles over a rocky path before removing their shoes and shuffling in a snaking crowd to a fence strewn with marigolds, candles and burning incense. Around the enclosure, local people touted picture postcards, booklets and CDs telling the story of the boy’s life. Makeshift food and tea stalls run by villagers had sprung up. Allowed no closer to Ram Bamjan than 50 metres after concerns that the huge crowds were disturbing his concentration, the devotees stood on tip-toe, craning their necks to catch a glimpse of the distant figure.
“I saw a reddish-yellow light on his forehead. A few minutes later I saw it on his hand. It’s real. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Dhanbaha Durgurung, 60, a retired Gurkha in the British Army, said. He had made the ten-hour journey from his home in Pokhara, in central Nepal, after hearing a BBC radio report about the boy. “I had to see it for myself,” he said. “
I believe he’s the reincarnation of Buddha. I’m going to come back in a week and bring my whole family.”
The spectacle resembles an episode in the life of Buddha, who found enlightenment more than 2,500 years ago after 49 days under a peepul tree. He was born only 257km (160 miles) from Bara in 540BC.
In the nearby village of Ratanpur, Maya Devi, 50, the mother of Ram Bamjan, said that her son had changed after spending almost two years in Buddhist monasteries in India, including Bodh Gaya, the spot in the state of Bihar where Buddha gained enlightenment.
“He had always been a loner, but when he returned from India he just stayed at home and would chant and study Buddhist scripts,” she said, opening a cupboard in her son’s sparse bedroom that was filled with his red, satin-bound religious books.
Maya Devi was sad to see the sixth of her nine children go. He did not tell his family that he planned to live in the forest and crept out during the night to avoid being followed. She said: “I didn’t want him to stay away from home at night in the jungle. It’s a dangerous place. If he had not been called there by God, he would not have survived for so long.”
Villagers say that last month Ram shook off the effects of a poisonous snake bite. He apparently told an older brother that he did not want to be followed into the forest and that he was not a Buddha. He said: “I’ve got my education directly from God, but what I’ve learnt I’m not revealing now. I need six years of meditation.”
Local officials have asked scientific and religious bodies in Nepal to investigate whether the claims about the boy are true. In particular they want to know what happens when a curtain screens the boy from observers at night.
There have been suggestions that the boy is part of a plot by left-wing guerrillas to collect money from gullible villagers, but officials are hampered by a group of minders who refuse to allow anyone to disturb him.
Santa Raj Subedi, the chief government official in Bara, said: “The strength of religious belief means our hands are tied. We can’t just march in and interfere. Besides, being able to meditate is a human right. We can’t stop anyone doing it.”
Maya Devi is undecided about whether her son is the reincarnation of Buddha. “He’s certainly extraordinary,” she said. “But I’ll wait until after his six years of meditation to decide whether he’s a god.” |
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Post subject: Like Buddha in Nepal
Posted: Dec 06, 2005 - 02:41 PM
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Joined: Aug 19, 2003
Posts: 40
Location: London,uk
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Thx Prithivipath
I really appreciate about your updating news. I would like to request you to please keep updating for us.
Prince Khanal
London |
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Post subject:
Posted: Dec 07, 2005 - 02:03 AM
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Joined: Sep 08, 2003
Posts: 205
Location: US
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What's up!!! Princ........
Yes, it's an interesting and mystery news for a world. But, it's awesome and pride for NEPAL..................
Hey Roshan...... R u???? |
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Post subject:
Posted: Dec 21, 2005 - 09:14 PM
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Joined: Sep 08, 2003
Posts: 205
Location: US
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'I'm Not Buddha, Just a Monk'
Can someone live for more than six months without food and drink?
Email Article Print Article Radheshyam Dahal (rsdahal)
A mysterious so-called "new Buddha" has come to light in the jungle of Bara district of Katmandu. Every day hundreds of people from different countries show up there. Some believing and worshipping him and some thinking "how can it happen?" and predicting so many things about the monk.
This reporter has also tried to satisfy his curiosity by seeing for himself but is still surprised at what's going on - many national and international television outlets are there to report on the monk, whose brother, in talking with a reporter, said he himself tells him he is only a monk, not Buddha.
Eyewitnesses say that his deep meditation was interrupted just once, and then for only a few minutes. At that time he said, "I'm just here in deep meditation for the well-being of humanity. So don't tell me I'm a Buddha. I'm not Buddha yet. I'm just on the way. So please leave me to my six year's meditation."
Mr Ram Bahadur Bamjan, as the monk in deep meditation is known, has been to different parts of Nepal and India in the course of his monastic training since the age of 11. Five months after returning he took up his current meditative posture in the forest.
His brother, Som Bahadur Lama, in talking with us, said "Eyewitnesses also have claimed that for a few days light could be seen on his forehead and his hand. But when we visited we saw only the man sitting in the Buddha position in deep meditation. The attitude of his head has slightly changed from what it was before, and his loincloth has become dirty.
Where he is to be found is in a dense forest about 300 km from Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, and 8 km down a rough road from the highway. The Nepali government has said that his case is under investigation but as yet has taken no action, nor has any more security been provided him, so it would appear that the government has made him incommunicado.
The Buddhist gurus said after investigation that only they can judge whether he is in meditation or not. But the family members of the monk and the villagers are saying they won't allow anyone to touch him, saying only that he is in meditation for six years. So just leave him as he is now. |
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Post subject: history of Buddhism...............
Posted: Jan 25, 2006 - 01:38 AM
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Joined: Sep 08, 2003
Posts: 205
Location: US
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History:
The history of Buddhism is the story of one man's spiritual journey to Enlightenment, and of the teachings and ways of living that developed from it.
Siddhartha Gautama — The Buddha
By finding the path to Enlightenment the Buddha was led from the pain of suffering and rebirth towards the path of Enlightenment and became known as the Buddha or "awakened one".
A Life of Luxury:
Siddharta Gautama was born around the year 580 BCE in the village of Lumbini in Nepal.
He was born into a royal family, and his privileged life insulated him from the sufferings of life; sufferings such as sickness, age, and death.
Discovering Cruel Reality:
One day, after growing-up, marrying and having a child, Siddhartha went outside the royal enclosure where he lived. When he went outside he saw, each for the first time, an old man, a sick man, and a corpse.
This greatly disturbed him, and he learned that sickness, age, and death were the inevitable fate of human beings — a fate no-one could avoid.
Becoming a Holy Man:
Siddartha had also seen a monk, and he decided this was a sign that he should leave his protected royal life and live as a homeless Holy Man.
Siddartha's travels showed him much more of the the suffering of the world.
He searched for a way to escape the inevitability of death, old age and pain first by studying with religious men. This didn't provide him with an answer.
A Life of Self-Denial:
Siddartha encountered an Indian ascetic who encouraged him to follow a life of extreme self-denial and discipline.
The Buddha also practiced meditation but concluded that in themselves, the highest meditative states were not enough.
Siddartha followed this life of extreme asceticism for six years, but this did not satisfy him either; he still had not escaped from the world of suffering.
The Middle Way:
He abandoned the strict lifestyle of self denial and ascetism, but did not return to the pampered luxury of his early life.
Instead, he pursued the Middle Way, which is just what it sounds like; neither luxury, nor poverty, and sought another way.
Enlightenment:
One day, seated beneath the Bodhi tree (the tree of awakening) Siddartha became deeply absorbed in meditation, and reflected on his experience of life, determined to penetrate its truth.
He finally achieved Enlightenment and became the Buddha.
The Mahabodhi Temple (above) at the site of Buddha's enlightenment, is now a pilgrimage site.
Buddhist legend tells that at first the Buddha was happy to dwell within this state, but Brahma, king of the gods, asked, on behalf of the whole world, that he should share his understanding with others.
The Teacher:
Buddha set in motion the "wheel of teaching": rather than worshipping one god or gods, Buddhism centres around the timeless importance of the teaching, or the dharma.
For the next 45 years of his life the Buddha taught many disciples, who became Arahants or "noble ones", who had attained Enlightenment for themselves. |
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Post subject: The little Buddha of Bara.........
Posted: Jan 29, 2006 - 04:43 PM
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Joined: Sep 08, 2003
Posts: 205
Location: US
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The little Buddha of Bara
By ekantipur team
Braving the cold wave in the Terai that has already claimed dozens this winter, Ram Bahadur Bomjon, known as the Buddha Boy, is continuing his meditation wearing just a thin cloth. Eight months have already passed since he began his "deep meditation" but the confusion whether he has really not eaten or drunk anything during this period is still unresolved. It has been claimed that the 16-yr-old has not drunk even a single drop of water since he began his meditation on May 17, last year.
'The biting cold has had no effect whatsoever on him so far," says priest Prem Lama, who is also Bomjon's maternal uncle and the only person having close access to Bomjon, "He, however, looks thinner."
"He had short hair and a muscular physique when he sat under the Banyan tree," says Resham KC, who has been capturing the meditating "Buddha Boy" in his movie camera for the last eight months, "(Now) his hair has grown down to the tip of his nose and his body has thinned."
"Had it not been for a godly power, this biting cold would have already killed the boy," says 72-yr-old Babulal Syangtan who arrived at the meditation site for the seventh time with rations and other daily necessities enough for 100 days.
People from different walks of life started pouring into the meditation site since last October after Bomjon got publicity as the re-incarnation of the Buddha. Millions have visited the site so far. The locals have also formed a committe- the "Om Namobuddha Tapoban Protection Conservation Committee"- headed by one Bed Bahadur Thing for the management of the meditation site in the Bara jungle. Thing says the committee had to be formed for the protection of the meditating boy as he himself said before beginning his mediation that he needed to meditate for six years to reach Buddhahood. "We had to come forward to provide protection as some miscreants tried to disturb him by making noises and poking him with a stick," explains Thing.
The meditating boy became a headache for the local administration after tens of thousands of people started thronging the meditation site. Security sources say a large portion of the money and other offerings made at the meditation site and the amount collected from selling Bomjon's pictures, CDs and biography goes to the Maoists. "We have received information that 75 percent of this income reaches Maoist hands," claimed a security official on the condition of anonymity, "This is the main reason why the general public is discouraged from visiting the meditation site."
However, Thing, who claims that the committee has not given a single penny to the Maoists, says both the security forces and the Maoists have been asked to accept the meditation area as a zone of peace.
The district administration has not accepted the letter from the locals to register the committee. A joint meeting of the district administration, security bodies and representatives of the committee held at the Zonal Administration Office on November 18, last year, had decided to screen the meditating boy and stop visitors from seeing him. Before this, the District Administration Office of Bara had ordered the committee to furnish its income-expenditure details.
Chief District Officer (CDO) of Bara, Shanta Raj Subedi says the district administration had to take this decision as settlement and business activities are prohibited in the jungle area. CDO Subedi also complains that the committee violated the decision and lifted the screen around Bomjon and also did not furnish the income-expenditure details and the name list of the volunteers working on the meditation site.
Chairman of the committee, Thing, however, explains that he had to remove the screen because of the mounting pressure from the visitors. "We could not keep him (Bomjon) behind the screen after thousands of devotees insisted on its removal," Thing said.
An eight-member team of health workers headed by the district hospital's Medical Superintendent Ram Lakhan Shah had observed the meditating boy for half an hour on November 14, 2005. The medical team that made the observation from a distance of five metres concluded that there was no doubt that Bomjon was alive and suggested that they needed to observe him for at least a week to reach any comprehensive conclusion. During the half hour observation the medical team noticed Bomjon breath three times, swallow his saliva once and move his eyelashes. "Even if he eats at night, it is extraordinary to continuously meditate in the same position for 12 hours a day," Dr Shah said. One reason for Bomjon's ability to meditate for long periods could be due to yoga, he guessed, adding, "He needs to be thoroughly examined since his case has thrown up a challenge to medical science."
A member of the team, Dr Raj Dev Kushwaha said, "Just by examining the glucose level in his blood, it can be easily found out whether he has eaten or not." However, any physical examination of Bomjon is not acceptable to the committee. "We will not allow, at any cost, any examination that involves touching or piercing since it will disturb him," Thing argues.
The district administration on November 16, 2005 had written to the Royal Nepal Academy for Science and Technology (RONAST) and the Lumbini Development Trust (LDT) to carry out Bomjon's medical examinations. Indeed the LDT and the Tribhuvan University Institute of Medicine did carry out an observation at the site. "Perhaps because they too could not come up with a comprehensive report; there was no response," says CDO Subedi.
Two months back, a seven-member team headed by a Rimpoche from Pharping Monastery also observed Bomjon. A highly experienced Yoga practitioner himself with six years of meditation experience, the Rimpoche had said back then that Bomjon could not be taken as a Buddha, adding meditation was nothing extraordinary in Buddhism. "His body must be scientifically examined to know whether he has eaten or not," he said.
The crowds started flocking into the area after the committee began a special Puja by lighting 100 thousand candles during the last Dashain festival, while claiming that Bomjon had not drunk even a single drop of water after starting his meditation. Thing also claims that the news of Bomjon's "godly power" began to spread after two dumb people started speaking after visiting the meditation site.
Bomjon's mother says that her son has become a god. "He never touched any meat or fish, nor did he drink any alcohol. He was so different from others," she says, "He never fought with anyone and was peaceful by nature."
The hubbub surrounding the meditation site starts seven kilometres away at the Mahendra Highway. Even if the number of pilgrims and observers has thinned out, microbuses have not stopped operating from the highway to the meditation site. Private jeeps, cars and motorcycles still aim north from the highway to the Charkose Jhadee (jungle). The meditation site is seven kilometres inside the Charkose Jhadee, located to the north of the Mahendra Highway, which is a kilometre west of Nijgadh of Bara.
The meditation site has been cordoned off with ropes. The first cordon is 25 metres away from the actual place where Bomjon sits while the second cordon lies 50 metres away. It was only when people watching from beyond the second cordon started doubting that Bomjon was a human being did the committee allow for five people at a time to move to and observe from the first cordon. Each person is only allowed thirty seconds to observe Bomjon.
According to Prem Lama, Ratnapur VDC born Bomjon began studying Buddhism for five years after attending the local primary school till class five. He then spent some time in Lumbini and Dehradun (India), spending one more year studying Buddhism and returned home last January. He began his mediation after spending a further four months studying Buddhism at home. |
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Post subject: The Little Buddha of Bara
Posted: Feb 08, 2006 - 12:43 PM
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Joined: Sep 08, 2003
Posts: 205
Location: US
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by KEITH D LESLIE
The Little Buddha of Bara
A young Tamang boy reaches the highest sacred realms of life
At first, I was skeptical about going to receive darshan from Ram Bahadur Bomzon, ‘The Little Buddha of Bara’. I didn’t want to be part of a human circus. I felt this young man was showing us the way each of us should practice our own dharma in search of greater good, devotion or sanctity—not racing off to see someone else practice theirs. Still, I was intrigued.
So, with friends, we drove over the Tribhuban Rajpath amidst the spectacular backdrop of the Central Himalaya. We first passed an RNA check point in Palung then below Daman drove by young well-armed Maoists chopping down trees. A night-stop at the Avocado Motel in Hetauda, then early next morning we drove to Bara. As we woke, I recalled that exactly one year ago on 2 January I had watched the sun rise driving back to Bangkok after the cremation of our friend, Robin Needham, the former CARE Nepal Director. Now the sun was rising anew with the miracle of life full circle as we were off to see a young boy seeking inspiration and salvation in the jungles of Nepal. |
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Post subject: RE: The Little Buddha of Bara
Posted: Feb 20, 2008 - 02:15 AM
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