"Buddhaland" - Is Nothing Sacred Anymore?

WORLDCRUNCH/LA STAMPA
By Ilaria Maria Sala

NEPAL---The setting for all of this is Lumbini, in the plains of Terai, just north of the Indian border, a fertile yet unforgiving land where the summer sun pushes temperatures above 50°C. It's here that Siddharta Gautama Buddha was born between the 5th and 6th centuries before Christ; as proof there are some stones and a column erected by King Ashoka (304-232 B.C.). A tree was there instead of a manger: Queen Maya was in Lumbini when she went into labor and gave birth while holding onto a sal branch near the stream. Now, a new urgency is gripping the fate of Lumbini, with a Buddha-related project backed by a Chinese group and the Nepalese Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal (aka Prachanda, the Invincible), but fiercely opposed by the local Buddhists and anti-Maoists. "For Nepal, it could be a goldmine!" insists Kanak Dixit, writer and political analyst. A Texan architecht and UN chief His proposal is for "Buddhaland," along with Vertical Theme Park and Texan-born architect Eric Kuhne, famous for designing the biggest shopping mall in Europe. [link]