November 26, 2013

The remains of what may be the oldest known Buddhist shrine have been found in southern Nepal, an international team of archaeologists has reported. The remains of a wooden structure, which dates to about 550 B.C., were discovered inside the younger Maya Devi temple in Lumbini, Nepal, the traditional birthplace of the Buddha, the teacher who founded Buddhism. The findings are the first archaeological evidence connecting Buddha’s birth and the Buddhist religion to the 500’s B.C.

Buddhism is one of the world’s major religions. At various times, Buddhism has been a dominant religious, cultural, and social force in most of Asia. Today, Buddhism has about 350 million followers. Most live in Tibet and other regions of China, and in Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Sri Lanka, and mainland Southeast Asia.

The Buddha (center) and eight spiritual leaders called bodhisattvas appear in a painting from the 1300′s. (Buddha Amitabha with the Eight Great Bodhisattvas, a hanging scroll with ink colors and gold on silk; The Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, CA)

According to Nepalese tradition, the Buddha was born as Siddhartha Gautama in 623 B.C. Earlier archaeological evidence of Buddhist activity in Lumbini dated back only to the 200’s B.C. Lumbini lies near sites in northeastern India that are significant in the Buddhist tradition. These sites include Bodh Gaya, where Siddhartha Gautama is said to have gained spiritual enlightenment; Samath, where the enlightened Buddha first preached; and Kusinagara, the place of his death.

The archaeological team, headed by Robin Coningham of Durham University in the United Kingdom and Kosh Prasad Acharya of the Pashupati Area Development Trust in Nepal, have been working at the Maya Devi site since 2011. Their findings, published on November 25 in the journal Antiquity, included evidence of multiple temples buried within Maya Devi. One of the older temples appeared to have included an enclosure with trees growing in its center. This arrangement is consistent with a traditional layout of Buddhist temples. Scientists used radiocarbon dating and another dating technique called optically stimulated luminescence to analyze charcoal and sand samples found at the temple site. Both types of analysis indicated that the temple dated back to the 500’s B.C.

Additional World Book articles:

• Bodhisattva
• Dharma
• Nirvana