Transcript

4.17.25 · Smithsonian Magazine

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome. This is Rebecca Shore for Radio Eye, and today
0:04
I will be reading the Smithsonian Magazine dated April May
0:08
twenty twenty five. As a reminder, RADIOI is a reading
0:12
service intended for people who are blind or have other
0:15
disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material. Please
0:20
join me now for the first part of the article
0:23
titled What Archaeologists Are Uncovering about the Buddha in his
0:27
legendary Nepali hometown. The birthplace of the Buddha beckons worshippers
0:33
from around the world, as well as researchers hoping to
0:36
dig up new evidence about the revered spiritual leader. By
0:41
Jeffrey Bartholet. Shortly after dawn, more than two hundred monks
0:47
from an order of Tibetan exiles carry carefully bundled scriptures
0:52
and one hundred eight gold gilt Buddha statues in a
0:56
long procession toward the site revered as Siddhartha Gotama's birthplace.
1:02
Some monks beat drums or wave sweet incense. Some wear
1:07
ritual crowns or hold elaborately tasseled umbrellas. Some play brass
1:13
and copper dungchin or long horns, which vibrate with an
1:17
eerie rumble that is said to resonate with the other
1:21
worldly beauty of the Buddha's teachings. The parade arrives at
1:26
a large white building of brick and steel. Most of
1:30
the monks circumambulate the building, walking past a polished sandstone
1:34
pillar placed here in the third century BC, and along
1:38
the edges of a pond where it is said that
1:41
Maya Devi, Siddartha's mother bathes herself before childbirth. A smaller
1:47
group of senior Tibetan monks enter the building, there, standing
1:52
before a fourth century A d bas relief of Maya
1:56
Devi giving birth and above an ancient marker stone that
2:01
is said to identify the precise nativity spot. The men
2:04
conduct a purification ritual, offering a symbolic lamp of wisdom
2:09
to dispel forces of ignorance from the Buddha's birthplace. In
2:14
an area outside the temple building known as the Sacred Garden,
2:18
monks from many other lands are gathering in the early
2:22
morning light, some in saffron robes, others in Burgundy. They
2:27
come from Nepal and Vietnam, India and Thailand, Sri Lanka,
2:32
Japan and many other countries. Gray and black clad monks
2:37
from China hold aloft and undulating blue and gold dragon.
2:43
A smattering of Buddhist nuns is present, too, many dressed
2:46
in pink or white. On a meditation platform. Devotees from
2:51
countries and territories that are bitter political rivals sit shoulder
2:56
to shoulder to chant mantras for peace. Labsang Lama, a
3:02
Nepali lay person, hands out crisp ten rupee notes the
3:06
equivalent of about eight cents to each of the seated
3:10
monks and nuns. We believe in cause and effect, he says,
3:15
what we give, we will get in the next life.
3:19
The monks, nuns and pilgrims have gathered in the stiflingly
3:23
hot town of Lumbini, near the border with India because
3:27
this is the day when the Buddha's birth is celebrated
3:30
here in Nepal, and because Buddhists believe this place has
3:34
sacred power. But they are not the only people seeking
3:38
the Buddha and Lumbini archaeologists have been searching here for
3:42
an altogether different Buddha, not the figure of faith and metaphor,
3:47
but an actual man who was born, lived preached and
3:51
died in this region at least a century before any
3:54
records of his teachings were written down. They've been digging
3:58
for artifacts in the area identified as his birthplace, and
4:03
also in an area of buried ruins seventeen miles away,
4:08
which the archaeologists believe was the site of the ancient
4:12
town of Kapilavastu, Siddhartha's childhood home. What they are finding
4:18
and what they are still hoping to find, could be
4:21
important to practicing Buddhists, who still debate among themselves when
4:26
exactly the Buddha lived. The findings could also shed new
4:30
light on when and how Buddhism spread throughout Asia. Economic
4:35
interests are also at stake. A developing country like Nepal
4:40
would like to boost pilgrimage and tourism to sites identified
4:44
with the Buddhists story, and new finds and revelations are
4:48
likely to attract more visitors. And Yet, the discoveries to
4:52
date and the theories about them are controversial, and they
4:56
come at a time when there is renewed scholarly debate
5:00
about whether a man named Siddharta Gatima ever existed at all,
5:05
even among believers. The Buddha is a figure who takes
5:09
on different forms depending on the observer. Among secular Buddhists
5:14
in the United States, he's often regarded simply as an
5:18
enlightened teacher, a person who, through discipline and deep meditation,
5:23
gained remarkable insights into the human condition and gave instructions
5:27
for how people can tame and channel their minds to
5:31
reduce the stress of living. In Asia, where Buddhism is
5:35
practiced in a bewildering array of different schools and lineages,
5:40
each with its own traditions and rituals, he's often a
5:43
much more magical figure, some one who could levitate and
5:47
fly long distances, subdue dragons and demons, project duplicates of
5:52
himself in space, and travel to astral realms. There is
5:58
no definitive scriptural tes that lays out the full story
6:02
of the Buddha's life, as John S. Strong, an emeritus
6:07
scholar of religious studies at Bates College, writes in his
6:10
two thousand one book The Buddha, A Beginner's Guide, Each
6:15
Buddhist telling and retelling the stories about him has been
6:19
influenced by historical recollections, doctrinal emphasies, ritual concerns, political allegiances,
6:26
social and cultural factors, or simply the desire to weave
6:30
a good tale. Such yarns differ in their particulars, often
6:35
contradicting one another, but they generally follow a pattern, including
6:40
key episodes regarded as inspiring and worth recalling, whatever their
6:45
grounding in history strong rights. As recounted in a very
6:50
popular form of ancient Buddhist literature called the Jataka tales,
6:55
the Buddha first appears many eons ago as a man
6:58
who aspires to be a Buddha Sanskrit for awakened one.
7:04
He passes through countless lives and reincarnations as a human,
7:08
god and animal, sometimes encountering previous Buddhas along the way.
7:13
In all of these lifetimes, he is seeking spiritual liberation,
7:18
but he does not succeed until his final rebirth, which
7:21
occurs in Lumbini. The stories of his birth are fantastical.
7:27
The future Buddha enters the womb fully formed and resides
7:30
there in a splendid palace where he receives deities as guests.
7:36
In some versions of the story, his mother Maya Devi
7:40
has an auspicious dream of a white elephant entering her body,
7:44
symbolizing holiness, prosperity, and power. Ten lunar months later, Maya
7:50
Devi travels toward her parents home, hoping to deliver there,
7:54
but she doesn't make it. About half way through her journey,
7:58
she stops at a grove or garden and lumbini, where
8:02
she takes hold of a tree branch and gives birth
8:04
standing up. As the story is recorded in key scriptures
8:10
and depicted in ancient Buddhist works of art, the new
8:13
born child miraculously emerges from beneath her right armpit. Like
8:18
all Buddhas throughout time, he emerges unsullied, stainless, not defiled
8:24
by water, mucus, blood, or any impurity, pure and spotless,
8:29
according to the Mahapadana Suta, or Great Discourse on the Lineage,
8:34
he lands in the hands of divas celestial beings, or
8:38
in a golden net held by the divas, and then
8:41
is placed on the ground, where he immediately takes seven steps,
8:45
each marked by a sprouting lotus flower. I am supreme
8:49
in the world, he declares, this is my last berth.
8:53
Henceforth there will be no rebirth for me. Maya Devi
8:58
dies seven days later and Siddhartha is raised by his father,
9:02
King Sudhodana, and his mother's sister mahapra Japati Gattumi in
9:10
a nearby city called Kapila Vastu. Sages counsel the king
9:15
that Siddharta will grow up either to be a universal
9:18
monarch or a supreme spiritual leader. Hoping to tip the
9:23
scales in favor of worldly rule, the king keeps his
9:26
son sheltered from the woes of the world. Siddhartha lives
9:31
in a pleasure palace, surrounded by attendants and beautiful women,
9:35
unexposed to the perils and sufferings of life. According to tradition,
9:41
at sixteen, he marries the lovely Yasidara, who eventually gives
9:45
birth to a son n named Rahula, which tellingly means
9:49
fetter or obstacle. Some time later, however, Siddhartha, with the
9:54
help of the gods, emerges from his compound and encounters
9:59
four key scenes an old man, a sick man, a corpse,
10:03
and a traveling ascetic. The first three signs make him
10:07
deeply aware of the inevitability of suffering and impermanence, strong
10:12
tells me, and the fourth gives him hope that there
10:15
is a solution. At the age of twenty nine, having
10:19
resolved that he must seek a remedy for life's suffering,
10:23
he shaves off his hair, sheds his royal garb, puts
10:26
on the yellow robes of a monk or beggar, and
10:29
begins his long journey to attain enlightenment. At first, he
10:34
lives a life of extreme self denial, which nearly kills him.
10:39
Then he turns toward a middle way, avoiding extremes of
10:43
both indulgent pleasure and self mortification. He endures many challenges
10:48
during his journey, including assaults from a deity named Mara,
10:53
often characterized as an evil demon, who tries to deter
10:57
and distract him. But Siddharta finally achieves the spiritual awakening
11:03
he seeks and lives to the age of eighty. Western
11:07
scholars regard most or all of this tale as myth,
11:10
a story that evolved over centuries and is more concerned
11:14
with spiritual meaning than historical accuracy. The Buddha would likely
11:20
have spoken a language called Magadi Prancrete, a vernacular relative
11:25
of Sanskrit that is now dead. During his lifetime, there
11:30
was no written script, so accounts of his life were
11:33
transmitted orally for generations before they were written down. The
11:38
earliest Buddhist texts were probably written in Pali, Sanskrit, and
11:43
other closely related languages. Translations and editions followed in Tibetan, Chinese,
11:49
and other tongues. The stories grew and morphed, elaborating on
11:54
the Buddha's birth, his supernatural powers, the presence of spectral
11:58
creatures and demons, and had geographical descriptions of places and events.
12:05
Textual scholars have tried to separate the reliable from the incredible.
12:10
In the nineteenth century, some scholars suspected that the Buddha
12:14
was an entirely mythical character. The stories in the scriptures
12:18
seemed so exaggerated or fabricated as to be unreal, and
12:23
they were often read as allegories. In the twentieth century, however,
12:27
a consensus emerged that an historical Buddha likely did exist.
12:33
Among other things, inscriptions from the third century BC were
12:37
discovered that directly referred to him, including the pillar at Lumbini,
12:42
and it seemed easier to imagine a man who morphed
12:45
into a myth than a series of myths and beliefs
12:48
coalescing around an imaginary man. Such scholars sought to strip
12:53
away the exaggerations of the biographies so as to de
12:57
mythologize the tradition and come to an understanding of the
13:01
real Buddha strong rights in his biography. In this they mirrored,
13:06
to some extent the rationalist positivist quest for the historical Jesus,
13:11
being undertaken by some of their contemporaries and biblical studies. Still,
13:17
disagreement over even the most basic facts, like the century
13:21
in which the Buddha lived continued. The debate erupted again
13:26
in twenty seventeen when a Canadian scholar, David Druze of
13:30
the University of Manitoba, published an article in the Journal
13:34
of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, a leading publication,
13:39
that argued that there was no solid evidence for the
13:42
Buddha's historical existence. Though the Buddha is universally agreed to
13:48
have lived, Dues wrote, more than two centuries of scholarship
13:52
have failed to establish anything about him. We are thus
13:56
left with the rather strange proposition that Buddhism was founded
14:00
by his historical figure, who has not been linked to
14:04
any historical facts. An idea that would seem decidedly unempirical
14:09
and only dubiously coherent. That article provoked strong criticism from
14:15
other scholars, some who disagreed with Drews, and others who
14:19
thought the argument was irrelevant, that nothing could be proved
14:22
about a person who lived before anything was recorded in writing,
14:26
and that the stories were culturally and spiritually meaningful whether
14:30
or not the Buddha was an actual man. The world's
14:34
most famous living Buddhist, the Dali Lama, has called for
14:38
more research into the Buddha's life. I personally feel it
14:43
is quite disgraceful that nobody, not even Buddhists, know when
14:47
our teacher actually lived. The Tibetan leader wrote in his
14:51
twenty twelve book The End of Suffering and the Discovery
14:54
of Happiness. I have been seriously considering whether some scientific
14:59
research could be done. Relics are available in India and
15:03
Tibet which people believe derived from the Buddha himself. If
15:07
these were examined with modern techniques, we might be able
15:11
to establish some accurate dates, which would be very helpful. Yet,
15:16
some believers question why scientists are so determined to dig
15:20
up the past, and whether they might come to incorrect
15:23
conclusions that disturb the Buddhist faith. There is also potential
15:28
conflict between conservationists who want to protect archaeological sites by
15:33
limiting visitors and commercial development in the area, and politicians
15:38
who want to generate more commerce and income serving the
15:42
needs of Nepal's impoverished people. Nowadays, where there's a Buddha,
15:48
there's a dollar, says Bessanta Bidari, a Nepali archaeologist, who
15:53
worries that an influx of visitors will bring harm to
15:56
fragile and irreplaceable ruins. When Badari first came from New
16:00
Delhi to Lambini in nineteen eighty five, a dozen years
16:04
before it was designated a World Heritage Site by the
16:07
United Nations, the place felt neglected. Very few pilgrims used
16:12
to come, he recalls. They'd come for a few hours
16:15
with the lunch box from across the border in India
16:18
and return the same day. The electricity, which also came
16:22
from India, was so weak it could take a full
16:25
minute for the fan to make one rotation. Venomous snakes
16:29
were common. They used to like to hide under the pillows,
16:32
says Badari. We'd use a stick to pick up the
16:35
snake and toss it outside. Today, an area called the
16:40
Limbini Cultural Municipality, which was formed in twenty fourteen and
16:45
combines seven rural villages, is home to more than eighty hotels,
16:50
mainly serving pilgrims from the region. Dusty shops and stalls
16:55
sell baby Buddha statues, singing bowls used for meditation, and
16:59
others religious objects, as well as colorful stuffed animals and
17:03
plastic toys. The streets are populated by bicycle rickshaws, tuk tuks, motorcycles, cars, vans, tractors,
17:13
stray dogs, and the occasional cow. The municipality's residential and
17:18
commercial sections surround a pilgrimage area that comprises three zones
17:24
of about one square mile each, the Sacred Garden, where
17:27
the Buddha's presumed birthplace and other archaeological treasures are located,
17:33
a monastic zone bisected by a pedestrian walkway and boat canal,
17:38
which features temples and meditation centers of many different jet nationalities,
17:43
and the Cultural Center and New Lombini Village, which includes
17:47
a museum, an international research institute of Buddhist studies, a
17:52
world piece pagoda, and a crane sanctuary. The Barahaua airport
17:58
serving the area was expanded in twenty twenty two to
18:02
handle international flights and immute meditation and conference hall with
18:07
the five thousand person capacity, opened the same year after
18:11
a tourism lull during the COVID nineteen pandemic. The number
18:15
of visitors is rapidly increasing, says Pete Bahdor Tamang, Nepal's
18:22
Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. The government of
18:27
Nepal is ready to welcome millions of visitors to Lumbini,
18:31
but the area's rapid development has also brought pop problems.
18:36
Commercial and residential buildings have sprung up in areas that
18:40
were supposed to be protected from development. Pollution, largely from
18:44
cement and brickmaking factories and the open burning of agricultural waste,
18:50
thickens the air, which has a corrosive effect on exposed artifacts,
18:55
and the modern brick and steel structure covering the Buddhist
18:58
birthplace traps humidity, which erodes the ancient remains. Some centuries
19:05
old brick ruins directly next to the birthplace have lost
19:08
more than a foot in height because pilgrims have taken souvenirs,
19:12
which they regard as holy relics. When I visited last year,
19:17
a golden tarp was draped over those remains to prevent
19:21
further destruction. People are very happy to develop the sites
19:26
for tourism because they get instant income from that, says
19:29
kash Prasad at shar Yah, a Nepali CO leader of
19:34
recent digs, but they don't consider the carrying capacity of
19:38
the sites. He and others regard a newly expanded airport
19:42
as a time bomb. In twenty twenty four, UNESCO experts
19:47
called for Lumbini to be placed on a World Heritage
19:51
in Danger list, warning that the deterioration of the archaeological
19:56
sites showed an alarming state of conservation. The Pilgrimage area
20:02
was originally imagined as a serene place, a place of nature,
20:06
a quiet place, a place of worship, all befitting its gravitas,
20:11
says Michael Croft, a recent UNESCO representative to Nepal. But
20:17
that sort of ethos is difficult to maintain given the
20:20
fact that it's a place that local authorities, for very
20:23
understandable reasons, want to leverage for the economic development of
20:27
the province and the surrounding area, which are very very poor.
20:33
Delegates of the UN World Heritage Committee meeting and neighboring
20:37
India in July, decided to give Nepal more time to
20:41
submit a report detailing urgent measures that authorities are taking
20:45
to protect the site. An in danger listing would be
20:49
an embarrassment to Nepal, suggesting it is incapable of properly
20:54
managing the sacred area. All the while, archaeologists have continued
20:59
making provocative discoveries. Roughly seventeen miles from the Buddha's birthplace.
21:05
For instance, they unearthed evidence of a partial compound surrounded
21:10
by a walled city with a grid work of roads
21:13
and neighborhoods dating to the sixth century BC. The archaeologists
21:19
believe these ruins are ancient Kapila Vastu, where, according to
21:23
Buddhist scripture, Prince Siddharta lived before he renounced his royal
21:28
privileges and went off to seek enlightenment. That discovery, together
21:34
with others at the birth site in Lumbini, seemed to
21:37
bolster the theory that the Buddha lived in the sixth
21:40
century BC. Nepal has recently proposed the Kapilavastu site, located
21:47
in modern day to Loricote for World Heritage status. That
21:53
designation would give it international stature of its own, separate
21:57
from the Lumbini birthplace and draw more words tourism. But
22:01
Nepal isn't making a firm claim that the buried ruins
22:05
are the former hometown of Siddharta. That's because there's no
22:09
smoking gun, says UNESCO's Groft, no inscriptions or other written records. Instead,
22:15
Nepal is arguing for special status because the ancient complex
22:20
represents the best preserved early historic city and hinterland in
22:25
South Asia. Current evidence does show that the city was
22:30
an early Buddhist pilgrimage destination. In January twenty twenty four,
22:35
archaeologists unearthed a very rare absidal temple with a curved
22:41
wall on one end, similar to another one that exists
22:44
at Sarnat in India, where the Buddha was said to
22:47
have given his first sermon. They've yet to date the structure,
22:52
but they believe it was built to honor the Buddha
22:54
and his legacy. The absidal temple is really exciting because
23:00
you only get epsido temples in this period at course
23:03
sites associated with Buddhist pilgrimage, says Robin Coningham of England's
23:09
Durham University, a co leader of the dig. Other finds
23:14
include a string of small fortified places and wells along
23:19
an old pilgrim road between Lombini and Tallaricote, where travelers
23:25
would have sought protection from wild animals and other potential threats.
23:30
Coningham says the archaeologists also unearthed a rather fabulous collection
23:36
of silver punch marked coins, which date to around the
23:39
third century BC. That wave of pilgrimage was spurred by
23:44
the emperor Ashaka the Great, who then ruled a vast
23:48
empire stretching from Afghanistan and the west to the Bay
23:52
of Bengal in the east. Because writing had appeared in
23:56
the region by Ashaka's time, some legends about him are
23:59
easy year to verify than those about the Buddha. It
24:03
was a Shaka who in two forty eight or two
24:06
forty nine b C, more than a century after the
24:09
Buddha's death, erected a sandstone pillar in Lumbini with an
24:13
inscription that reads, in part, here was born the Buddha.
24:18
The Shakya sage. By some accounts, Ashaka became a supporter
24:23
of Buddhism in the eighth year after his coronation, when
24:27
he waged a war to expand his territory. A Shaka
24:31
himself was present at the battle, says Badari, the Nepali archaeologist,
24:36
who has a talent for story telling and has escorted presidents,
24:40
kings and u n secretaries general around the Lumbini area.
24:46
The slaughter took place on the banks of a river,
24:49
hand to hand fighting one hundred thousand dead, some with
24:52
no hands, some with their stomachs falling out, some with
24:56
their heads broken open, and the river was flowing with blood.
25:00
The scene changed him. Back at his capital, located under
25:05
the present day Indian city of Patna, a Shaka visited
25:08
a monastery and took refuge in the Buddha Bidari says
25:13
the all powerful emperor learned that the Buddha, on his deathbed,
25:18
had recommended that his followers visit four sacred places Lumbini,
25:23
the Buddha's birthplace, bod Gaya where he attained enlightenment, Sawnarth
25:28
where he gave his first sermon, and Kushingagar where he
25:32
attained Parinavana, the state after death of someone who has
25:36
previously reached enlightenment. Tradition has it that a legendary monk
25:42
named Upagupta personally took a shaka on a tour of
25:46
more than thirty sites associated with the Buddha, including Limbini.
25:51
A shaka was zealous about spreading Buddhism throughout his realm,
25:55
building countless shrines, sending missionaries vast distances, and encouraging Buddhist pilgrimage.
26:03
According to a legend, at least one of his sons
26:06
became a Buddhist monk and a daughter became a nun.
26:10
Both were said to be instrumental in spreading Buddhism to
26:13
Sri Lanka. Some scholars, however, believed that a Shaka's embrace
26:18
of Buddhism may have been largely a matter of political expedients.
26:23
After all, it made perfect sense for the emperor to
26:26
espouse compassion and condemn war once he had conquered a
26:30
vast realm and now wanted to secure it. Buddhism, says, strong,
26:36
was helpful for managing an empire. Either way, Buddhists benefited
26:41
greatly from a Shaka's support. It took a shaka more
26:45
than a decade to get to Limbini, but he hauled
26:48
with him or had his minions haul massive sandstone columns
26:52
from a quarry near the seat of his empire some
26:55
two hundred miles away. In Lembini, he also construct a
27:00
shrine to the Buddhist nativity. Archaeologists have determined that a
27:05
shrine already existed there, however, long before Shaka arrived. Digging
27:10
below the Ashakan level, they found a brick curb and
27:14
terrace dating to the fourth century b C. Then they
27:18
dug farther and found the postholes of an even earlier shrine,
27:22
the remains of a stick and mud fence around a
27:24
single tree dating to the sixth century b C. They
27:28
believed that this shrine was built shortly after the Buddhist's
27:31
death to mark his birthplace, which would make it the
27:33
earliest Buddhist shrine in South Asia. This would support traditions
27:38
that date the Buddhist birth from the early seventh century
27:41
to the latter half of the sixth century b C,
27:43
earlier than dates accepted by many scholars. A fairly recent
27:48
semi consensus says strong puts the Buddhist death between four
27:52
eighty six and three sixty b C. With his birth
27:56
roughly eighty years before that. This concludes readings from the
28:03
Smithsonian magazine for today. Your reader has been Rebecca Shore.
28:08
Thank you for listening, and have a great day.