Asia News
Network By Augusto F. Villalon. 2012-05-01
Lumbini (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) -
Lumbini is really nothing more than a small village at a crossroads
on the hot and dusty lowland plains of the flat, agricultural Terai
region of southern Nepal.
In this isolated place, the Buddha was
born, making Lumbini one of the four most important pilgrimage
sites for Buddhists.
The three other pilgrimage sites, located
in neighboring India, mark the places where the Buddha attained
enlightenment, preached his first sermon, and where he died and was
cremated.
In India, imposing temples built centuries
ago are landmarks to events in the Buddha's life, ceremoniously
inspiring and capturing pilgrim devotion.
Right outside temple precincts, the mundane
overpowers the spiritual: There is the expected maze of hawkers,
souvenir shops, refreshment stands and restaurants that lead to
roads lined with hotels catering to all categories of
pilgrims.
Rural Lumbini is the opposite. In a quiet,
agricultural setting, not as developed as the three other Buddhist
sites, Lumbini is where the mundane does not overpower the
spiritual. There are few souvenir hawkers. Restaurants are hard to
find, and not many hotels. Most pilgrims stay in
monasteries.
The aura of peace in rural Lumbini is
exceptional.
The United Nations commissioned Japanese
master architect Kenzo Tange to do a master plan for Lumbini in
1978, and the strength of the Tange plan is this: Its architecture
provides a spiritual experience for the pilgrim.
Tange's spiritual experience does not
confront pilgrims with stone temples or any religious symbolism
that is larger than life. Tange's buildings house everyday
functions: research center, museum, visitors’ center and management
offices.
No buildings line the long, open walkway
leading to the Sacred Garden where Buddha was born. It is simply a
long and straight, quiet, tree-lined outdoor walkway with a canal
at its center.
Central to spiritual
experience
The walkway is central to the spiritual
experience elicited by the Tange plan, a subliminal and unexpected
experience open to all but, as experiences go, unnoticed by
many.
Kenzo Tange carved out a 1 x 3-mile
rectangular area out of flat Lumbini agricultural land, relocated
its residents, and turned the area into a large, reforested garden,
evoking the birth of the Buddha in the lush Lumbini forest
thousands of years ago.
Divided into three equal 1 x 1-mile
squares, each sector of the master-planned area is designated for a
special function.
The northernmost sector is New Lumbini
Center, where all day-to-day pilgrim and management functions are
located: information offices, shops, food outlets, first aid and
offices for Lumbini Development Trust, which manages the
site.
The central sector is the Monastic Zone
where different monasteries built by Buddhist house monks and
pilgrims are located.
At the southern sector is the Sacred Garden
where archaeological relics mark the actual location of the
Buddha's birthplace.
The journey, done on foot, which begins at
New Lumbini Center through the Monastic Zone leading to the Sacred
Garden, is a journey that happens on two levels.
It can be a purely physical experience, a
long two-mile walk that gets the pilgrim from one point to another
or from the entrance to the Sacred Garden.
However, the subliminal effect of this
journey is what gives spiritual value to Lumbini. It is the
understated, fine quality that is the core of the Lumbini
experience, setting this shrine apart from all other Buddhist
shrines.
Public perception of architects is that
they build structures, but that is only part of what they do. The
success of any architect lies in the reaction elicited from people
as they experience the modulation of space and light while moving
through his work.
In a subtle, sophisticated manner, the
Tange master plan puts into motion a sequence of spaces that are
revealed subtly, as pilgrims experience on foot a procession of
events designed to awaken spirituality.
The entire experience takes place on a
mile-long, brick-paved outdoor walkway running in a straight line
from New Lumbini Center to the Sacred Garden.
Forgetting the mundane
Walking between a navigable canal and row
of trees planted equidistantly from each other, the mundane drops
away the farther the pilgrim walks from New Lumbini Center. The sky
and trees reflect on the canal, sounds of leaves in the wind, birds
and the occasional jackal howl pierce the quiet.
By the time the pilgrim has walked past the
monasteries and arrives at the eternal flame marking the entrance
to the Sacred Garden, he has forgotten the mundane, and is at peace
and ready for the Buddha.
At this point, the walkway ramps down,
compresses between high brick walls as if to squeeze the last of
the mundane from the pilgrim's consciousness, and becomes a
causeway crossing an artificial lake where at last the Sacred
Garden at the center of the lake comes into view.
The Sacred Garden is open to the sky,
visually bound by the Himalayan foothills in the distance, serene,
totally connected to the Buddhist universe, and a place of peace
and unity.
Tange sequences spaces along the walk, to
achieve the experience of peace upon arriving at the Sacred Garden.
This subliminal experience is the essence of
Buddhism.
This subliminal experience is misunderstood
by many who feel that the Kenzo Tange master plan is irrelevant to
Lumbini today, without realizing that this is an outstanding work
of 20th-century architectural heritage.