Idea #762 – Exploring the remains of Buddah’s Palace at Kapilvastu in Nepal
The site of Kapilavastu, Nepal, was the capital of the Śākya clan. According to tradition, it was the palace square of King Śuddhodana, the father of Siddhārtha Gautama, the future Buddha. The latter would have stayed there until the age of 29. The palace would have been destroyed, during the lifetime of the Buddha, by the king of Kosala, Virûdhaka, suzerain of the Śākya, Various historians place the events in 563 BC. AD for the birth of the Buddha, in 485 or 484 BC. AD for the destruction of the city.
For more than a millennium, the site of Kapilavastu was a place of Buddhist pilgrimage, as evidenced by the travelogue of the Chinese monks Faxian and Xuanzang, who went there respectively in the 5th and 7th centuries. Under successive Hindu and Muslim rulers of India or Nepal, Buddhism regressed as a religion, and in the 19th century, the exact location of the mythical place was forgotten. Its identification, which for a long time only interested a few specialists, became, in the second half of the 20th century, a nationalist and tourist issue, and was the subject of a certain rivalry between the Nepalese Terai and Indian Uttar Pradesh. Kapilavastu has thus been located either on the site of Tilaurakot in the district of Lumbini in Nepal, or in Uttar Pradesh, India.
UNESCO recognized the site of Lumbini as being the birthplace of Buddha, while the controversy still rages on his place of life and awakening. We are convinced that Kapilvastu was indeed in Nepal, as shown by the results of archaeological excavations; on the site, it is still possible to see the two eastern and western gates, one having served as a framework for the discovery of the harshness of the world by Buddha, the other having allowed him to leave his palace to go and meditate, as reports the texts.
Some Pictures
Where is it ?
Kapilavastu, Taulihawa, Nepal
