Temples in Lumbini

The Maya Devi Temple marks the spot where Siddhartha Gautama was born, and it is the reason Lumbini exists as a pilgrimage site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Inside, a marker stone identifies the exact birthplace, protected under glass and surrounded by the excavated brick foundations of earlier temples on the same ground. The Ashokan pillar stands just outside, inscribed in the third century BCE by the emperor Ashoka to record his own visit, and the sacred pond beside it is where the Buddha's mother is said to have bathed before the birth. Shoes come off at the entrance, photography inside is not allowed, and the site opens early, which is the best time to see it before the tour groups arrive.

Myanmar Golden Temple in Lumbini is the oldest structure of the city. Built in Burmese style of architecture, the temple is dedicated to Lord Buddha. The impressive corncob-shaped shikhara, styled after the temples of Bagan gives a regal look to the whole structure. There are three prayer halls and a Lokamani Pula Pagoda inside the building.

Zhong Hua Chinese Buddhist Monastery, popularly known as the China Temple is an elegant Buddhist Monastery in Lumbini. The impressive structure is built in a pagoda-style of architecture and resembles the look of the famous forbidden city of China. As one enters, the perfectly manicured internal courtyard fills the heart with peace and joy.

Dae Sung Shakya Sa, popularly known as the Korean Temple, is a Buddhist Monastery in Lumbini. The impressive structure is built in a Korean style of architecture and has colourful murals on the ceiling. It even offers community sleeping area as well as three meals a day to visitors for a few days at a minimal cost of NPR 500 per day. Meditating in the courtyard full of monks and pilgrims is a peaceful and refreshing experience.

Situated in Lumbini, Vietnam Phat Quoc Tu Temple is one of the few attractions that represent the relationship between Vietnam and Nepal. A number of people visit this temple as part of the pilgrimage for Gautam Buddha. With its facade flanked with artificial mountains and a grand roof, it is definitely worth a visit for those who are interested in Buddhism and are visiting Lumbini.

Dedicated to Lord Shiva, this temple is found on the left bank of the Tinau River. The Siddha Baba Temple is a fairly modest temple compared to some of the other temples in Nepal, but it still attracts quite a large number of devotees who come to give praise to Lod Shiva. It stands beside the Tilaurakot road on the way into Lumbini and is a working local shrine rather than one of the international monastery-temples, so it is quieter and busier with Nepali pilgrims than with tour groups. The pond beside it and the fish that live in it are treated as part of the site, and feeding them is a common offering.

Built by the Japanese Buddhist order Nipponzan Myohoji, this white stupa stands at the northern end of the grounds, beyond both monastic zones and close to the crane sanctuary. A gilded Buddha faces the approach. The walk or cycle out is quiet enough that most people treat it as the end of the circuit rather than the start, and it is the one stop here you come to for the open sky rather than for a particular country's architecture.

On the Theravada side of the canal, the Cambodian monastery is the one that looks least like its neighbours: a Khmer design with tiered roofs, naga balustrades and carved reliefs of the kind you would see at Angkor. It stands among the Thai and Myanmar temples in the east zone, so all three fit into one loop. Worth the detour for architecture you will not see anywhere else in Nepal.

Sri Lanka's monastery sits in the east zone with the other Theravada foundations and carries the plainest lines of the group: a white bell-shaped dagoba of the kind that dominates Anuradhapura, without the gilding of the Thai and Myanmar temples nearby. Sri Lanka is where the Pali canon was first written down, which gives the building more weight than its size suggests.

Across the canal in the west zone, this is a Kagyu foundation in the Tibetan tradition and a working monastic college rather than a country's showpiece. The main hall is painted in the dense reds and golds of Tibetan interiors, with murals running floor to ceiling. Because monks study here, you may find prayers in progress when you arrive, which is the closest thing in Lumbini to a monastery in use rather than on display.

A Drigung Kagyu foundation on the western side, this is a stupa rather than a temple: built on a lotus plan and carrying more carved and painted detail on its outside than anything else in the zone. Where the Thrangu monastery rewards going inside, this one rewards walking a slow circle around it, which is what a stupa is for. The two stand within easy walking distance, so take them together.

Most of the monastic zone was built by foreign countries. This one was built by Nepalis: the Manang community from the high valleys north of Annapurna, who follow the Tibetan tradition and placed their stupa on the west side among the Mahayana and Vajrayana foundations. It is smaller than the national temples around it, and the only entry here whose builders came from the country you are already standing in.

The tree stands in the Sacred Garden a few steps from the Maya Devi Temple, beside the Puskarini pond where the Buddha's mother is said to have bathed before the birth. Prayer flags hang thick from the branches and pilgrims sit beneath it for hours at a stretch. It needs no separate trip: it is inside the same enclosure as the birthplace, so see it while you are there rather than planning around it.