4.4 Lumbini—Birth Place of the Buddha蓝毗尼——佛陀诞生之地

蓝毗尼位于尼泊尔境内距印度边境苏纳利只有20来公里的边境小镇鲁明迪旁，是善觉王为其夫人蓝毗尼建造的一座花园。

据说公元前623年5月迦毗罗卫国净饭王夫人摩耶产期将临，按当地习俗回母家分娩，途经蓝毗尼时，被花团锦簇的美景所吸引，就住在那里欣赏起来了。第二天，正值尼历正月十五，王后沉浸于这良辰美景之中，毫无痛苦地扶着园中的娑罗双树，生下了王子悉达多•乔达摩。王子于29岁出家，随后遍访当时著名的宗教大师，直到35岁时，才在一颗菩提树下悟道，摸索出一条解脱人生痛苦的大道。成道后他长期在恒河流域讲经传道，并使得佛教逐渐传播开来。

佛教徒们为纪念佛祖释迦牟尼的诞生，称蓝毗尼为圣园，2500多年来前来朝拜瞻仰者络绎不绝。圣园分为三个区：摩耶夫人祠、菩提树、帕斯卡尼水坛、阿育王石柱等古迹构成园林区；30多个国家佛教组织兴建的寺庙为寺院区，包括中国、韩国、日本、越南、缅甸、斯里兰卡等各具本国特色的佛塔和寺庙；以及以保护圣地为目的的绿化区。蓝毗尼是尼泊尔的骄傲，也是世界级的文化胜地。每年尼历正月十五都要举行释迦牟尼诞生纪念活动，缅怀这位给人类思想带来巨大影响的历史伟人。

The birthplace of the Gautama Buddha, Lumbini, is the Mecca of every Buddhist, being one of the four holy places of Buddhism. It is said in the Parinibbana（涅槃）Sutta that Buddha himself identified four places of future pilgrimage: the sites of his birth, enlightenment（启蒙）, first discourse, and death. All of these events happened outside in nature under trees. While there is not any particular significance in this, other than it perhaps explains why Buddhists have always respected the environment and natural law.

Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, was born in the sixth century B.C. in what is now modern Nepal. His father, Suddhodana,was the ruler of the Sakya people and Siddhartha grew up living the extravagant（奢华的）life of a young prince. According to custom, he married at the young age of sixteen to a girl named Yasodhara. His father had ordered that he live a life of total seclusion（隔离）, but one day Siddhartha ventured out into the world and was confronted with the reality of the inevitable suffering of life. The next day, at the age of twenty-nine, he left his kingdom and newborn son to lead an ascetic（苦行的）life and determine a way to relieve universal suffering.

For six years, Siddhartha submitted himself to rigorous（严格的）ascetic practices, studying and following different methods of meditation（冥想）with various religious teachers. But he was never fully satisfied. One day, however, he was offered a bowl of rice from a young girl and he accepted it. In that moment, he realized that physical austerities（苦行）were not the means to achieve liberation. From then on, he encouraged people to follow a path of balance rather than extremism. He called this The Middle Way.

That night Siddhartha sat under the Bodhi tree, and meditated until dawn. He purified his mind of all defilements（污秽）and attained enlightenment at the age of thirty-five, thus earning the title Buddha, or "Enlightened One". For the remainder of his eighty years, the Buddha preached the Dharma in an effort to help other sentient beings reach enlightenment.

In the Buddha's time, Lumbini was a beautiful garden full of green and shady（成荫的）Sal trees (Shorea). The garden and its tranquil environs were owned by both the ShaAsoka pillarkyas and Kolias clans. King Suddhodana, father of Gautama Buddha was of the Shakya dynasty belonging to the Kshatriya or the warrior caste. Maya Devi, his mother, gave birth to the child on her way to her parent's home in Devadaha while taking rest in Lumbini under a sal tree in the month of May in the year 623 B.C. The beauty of Lumbini is described in Pali and Sanskrit literature. Maya Devi was spellbound（被迷住的）to see the natural grandeur of Lumbini. While she was standing, she felt labor pains（产前阵痛）and catching hold of a drooping（下垂的）branch of a Sal tree, the baby, the future Buddha, was born.

The bas relief above depicts Maya Devi with her right hand holding on to a branch of a sal tree with a newborn child standing upright on a lotus petal, shedding an oval halo, around his head, while two celestial（神仙）figures pour water and lotuses from vessels of heaven as indicated by the delineation of clouds. This nativity scene was installed by Malla Kings of the Naga dynasty from about the 11th to 15th century in the Karnali zone of Nepal.

In 249 B.C., when the Emperor Ashoka visited Lumbini, it was a flourishing village.Ashoka constructed four stupas（浮屠塔）and a stone pillar with a figure of a horse on top. The stone pillar bears an inscription which, in English translation, runs as follows:"King Piyadasi (Ashoka), beloved of devas, in the 20 year of the coronation, himself made a royal visit, Buddha Sakyamuni having been born here, a stone railing was built and a stone pillar erected to the Bhagavan having been born here, Lumbini village was taxed reduced and entitled to the eight part (only)".

Maya Devi Temple remained neglected for centuries. In 1895, Feuhrer, a famous German archaeologist, discovered the great pillar while wandering about the foothills of the Churia range. Further exploration and excavation of the surrounding area revealed the existence of a brick temple and a sandstone sculpture within the temple itself which depicts the scenes of the Buddha's birth.

It is pointed out by scholars that the temple of Maya Devi was constructed over the foundations of more than one earlier temple or stupa, and that this temple was probably built on an Ashokan stupa itself. On the south of the Maya Devi temple there is the famous sacred bathing pool known as Puskarni. It is believed that Maha Devi took a bath in this pool before the delivery（分娩）. By the side of the Ashoka pillar there is a river which flows southeast and is locally called the "Oil" river. In 1996, an archaeological dig unearthed a "flawless stone" placed there by the Indian Emperor Ashoka in 249 B.C. to mark the precise location of the Buddha's birth more than 2,600 years ago, if authenticated, the find will put Lumbini even more prominently on the map for millions of religious pilgrims.

Recently, several beautiful shrines have been built by devotees from Buddhist countries. A visit to Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, is not only for spiritual enlightenment but also for solace and satisfaction that one gets in such a calm and peaceful place.

用英语畅谈Lumbini黄金句

☺ The birthplace of the Gautama Buddha, Lumbini, is the Mecca of every Buddhist, being one of the four holy places of Buddhism.蓝毗尼，释加牟尼佛的诞生地，是每一位佛教徒向往的地方，佛教四大圣地之一。

☺ The next day, at the age of twenty-nine, he left his kingdom and newborn son to lead an ascetic life and determine a way to relieve universal suffering.第二天，29岁的他离开了王宫和初生的幼子，过上了苦行生活，决心要寻求解脱凡尘之苦的方法。

☺ He purified his mind of all defilements and attained enlightenment at the age of thirty-five, thus earning the title Buddha, or “Enlightened One”.他摒弃了心中所有杂念，在35岁的时候大彻大悟，因而获得佛陀的称号，或称“释加牟尼”。

☺ Maya Devi, his mother, gave birth to the child on her way to her parent's home in Devadaha while taking rest in Lumbini under a sal tree in the month of May in the year 623 B.C.公元前623年的5月，他的母亲玛雅•戴维在回天臂城娘家的路上，在蓝毗尼的一棵娑罗双树下休息的时候生下了他。

☺ Further exploration and excavation of the surrounding area revealed the existence of a brick temple and a sandstone sculpture within the temple itself which depicts the scenes of the Buddha's birth.对周边地区进一步勘探和挖掘后，发现了一座砖砌寺庙，寺庙里有一个沙石雕塑，描述了佛陀诞生时的情景。

用英语畅谈Lumbini