Restoring Lumbinī: Theravāda Buddhism and Heritage on the Nepal Frontier

ABSTRACT

The construction of the modern Buddhist ‘Holy Land’, in present-day India and Nepal, was part and parcel of the formation of Buddhism as a world religion in the early twentieth century and continues to represent a potent expression of Buddhist materiality in the contemporary moment. This article explores the location of the Buddha’s birthplace at Lumbinī within the discourse of modern Theravāda missionisation, reform and preservation. I assert that the project of locating and restoring Lumbinī was essential to Buddhism’s modern revival in Nepal and the domestication of Theravāda. The Maha Bodhi Society and Nepal’s Dharmodaya Sabha were formative in the construction of Lumbinī as a monument of Buddhist heritage and operated as the leading voices in efforts to repatriate the site to Buddhist custodianship. Exploring the material dimensions of early modern Theravāda reform signals a shift from domestic encounters with colonialism and Christian missionisation in locales of Buddhist majority to the transnational flow of persons, practices and knowledges that have come to shape the contours of modern Buddhism.¹

KEYWORDS:

• Theravāda
• missionisation
• World Heritage
• development
• Nepal

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. This article represents part of a broader project on the modern formation of Lumbinī and its significance as a United Nations, Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site. Early versions of this article were presented to the Space, Place, and Religion group at the American Academy of Religion and the New Work in Buddhist Studies section at the Association for Asian Studies. My revisions benefited from comments by Juliane Schober, Sophia Arjana, Brooke Schedneck, Eric Breault and William Hedberg, as well as from discussions with participants at the Lumbini Museum’s online lecture series, Museum in Motion.

2. The International Committee for the Development of Lumbini was formed within the UN electorate at the behest of former Secretary-General U Thant in 1970.

3. For a discussion of Buddhist art, architecture, and monumentality in the Kathmandu Valley see Banerjee (1972) and Owens (2002).

4. For a discussion of the Tibetan diaspora in Nepal see Lewis (1989) and Moran (2004).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Blayne K. Harcey

Blayne K. Harcey is a PhD candidate in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. He has a BA in philosophy with a certificate in religious studies from Colorado State University and an MA in comparative religion from the Iliff School of Theology. He is interested in the intersection of place-making, material culture, development and religion in South and Southeast Asia, with a focus on Buddhist pilgrimage practices. He has taught a wide range of courses at Arizona State University including 'Ritual, Symbol, and Myth', 'Religions of the World', 'Buddhism' and 'Religion in the Modern World'. He has published several book reviews for the journal Religious Studies Review and is currently writing his PhD dissertation titled Locating Lumbinī: Transnational Buddhism and the Construction of Heritage in Nepal.