May 4, 2015
From Mt. Everest in the north, to Lumbini – birthplace of Lord Buddha, a plains town situated along the southern Indian border – Nepalis are still reeling from the April 25 earthquake, a calamity from which it will take at least a decade to fully recover.
Still, hundreds of Tibetan refugees managed to visit damaged Buddhists shrines and monasteries to mark the birthday of Gautama Buddha and to pray for the country. Born in Lumbini around the year 563 BCE, Buddha’s birthday is celebrated on the full moon day of the Vaisakha month of the Buddhist calendar and the Hindu calendar, which usually falls in April or May month of the Western Gregorian calendar. The festival is alternately known as Purnima (“full moon day” in Sanskrit) and/or Jayanti (“birthday” in Nepali and Hindi).
Given Nepal’s recent catastrophe, of course, “birthday celebration” and “festival” are misnomers. The mood was somber. But in Bhoudanath, as well as at the base of the Swayambhunath shrine, located atop a hill on the northwestern edge of Kathmandu, hundreds of people chanted prayers Monday along with monks and nuns, as they walked around the hill where the white iconic stupa with its gazing eye is located.
Meanwhile, the death toll continues to rise as relief operations spread further away from centrally located Kathmandu Valley.
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