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Kushinagar - Historical Background
In those days, Kushinagar was described by Ven. Ananda as
“this little mud-walled town, this back-woods town, this
branch township”.
After the
Mahaparinibbana
of the Buddha, it became an important religious centre as
Buddhism spread in India. As one of the four
pilgrimage places mentioned by the Buddha, it attracted
devout Buddhists from all over India and abroad. King Asoka
visited Kushinagar in 249 BC and raised several
stupas
and pillars at the site. But by the time Hsüan Tsang visited
Kushinagar in 637 AD, the place was in ruins and its towns
and villages waste and des-olate with few inhabitants. He
saw the
Sala
trees under which the Buddha passed into
Mahaparinibbana,
the
vihara
containing the Reclining Buddha image and beside it the 61 m
tall
stupa
built by Asoka-raja, in a ruinous state with a stone pillar
in front. Further to the north, after crossing the
Hirannavati river was a
stupa
marking the cremation site. Yet Kushinagar continued to be a
living shrine until the 12th century AD, but after the
Muslim conquest of India it became deserted and eventually
fell into ruins and was forgotten.In 1861-62, Cunningham
visited the ruins of Kasia and identified the place as the
site of the Buddha’s
Mahaparinibbana.
In 1876, his assistant Carlleyle carried out extensive
excavations, which completely exposed the Main
stupa
and discovered right at its front the famous Reclining
Buddha image buried among the ruins of an oblong shrine.
More excavations continued until 1912 and yielded datable
finds which showed the continuous occupation of Kushinagar
up to the 12th century AD.In recent times, the first
Buddhist to occupy Kushinagar was the Venerable Mahavira, an
Indian national who was ordained as a monk in Sri Lanka, in
1890. He was responsible for restoring Kushinagar back to
its rightful place as a sacred shrine. Ven. Mahavira
repaired the main temple and built a
vihara
and
Dhamma
hall in 1902-03. After him came the Venerable Chandramani
from Akyab township in Arakan, Myanmar, who was ordained as
a monk in Chittagong in 1903. He continued the good work of
his predecessor by gaining possession of the
Mahaparinibbana
Temple, establishing educational
institutions for the local people and reviving the tradition
of
Buddha Jayanti,
which was celebrated for the first time in Kushinagar in
1924. Ven. Chandramani passed away in 1972 and was succeeded
by his disciple, Ven. Gyaneshwar, a Myanmar monk who
continues the noble task of taking care of the holy site.
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