Throughout the ages, all Buddhists are familiar with the account of Queen Maya, King Suddhodhana’s wife, giving birth to Gautama Buddha—who helped transform billions of people through his wisdom and teachings—under a sal tree in Lumbini. Now, just steps away from the location of this sal tree, a well-conceived museum dedicated to inspire more people with Buddha’s life stories and teachings is finally coming to light. With great appreciation and reverence, I rejoice all the people who have tirelessly devoted themselves to the realisation of this project.
Kris YaoChief Architect, April 2019
![Covering the Nepal earthquake in 2015 for the multinational news channel CNN as its Delhi-based correspondent, Sumnima Udas felt that the time had come for her to step up and do something for her country. Then 34, Sumnima’s career was at a crest – she had received the Journalist of the Year award at the inaugural Women’s Empowerment Journalism Awards the year before for her work on violence against women in India.
Later that same year, She visited Lumbini on a pilgrimage. Born to a Newar Buddhist family and an alumnus of S N Goenka’s Vipassana retreats, She hoped to explore her
Buddhist roots more deeply, but came away feeling that she had not learned much. Was this something she could contribute to, she wondered. “So at that point, very simply, I wrote up a proposal for the government [of Nepal] saying ‘Why don’t we have a world-class Museum of Buddhism in the Birthplace?” Sumnima relates.
She thus stepped away from a 15-year-old CNN career to focus on developing the idea which had been germinating within her since that fateful Lumbini pilgrimage. In September 2018, the Buddha Foundation, a non-profit organization that Sumnima chairs, signed an agreement with the Nepali government that entrusted it with the right to create, curate, and manage a world-class Museum in Lumbini for the next 35 years.
While COVID has meant that progress has been slow, Sumnima has been actively working with the Lumbini Development Trust to ensure that the existing building is shipshape, while also prioritizing fundraising. She has also put in place an effective and committed team, including a Chief Curator and Chief Architect, who she wants to introduce to the public at an upcoming press conference scheduled for September 2022.
Ultimately, for her, the project is both spiritual and civic: “The Lumbini Museum is a showcase for the history and significance of the Buddha’s birthplace. It is also a mandate to set a new standard for how heritage and art are preserved and promoted in Nepal.”
“More than anything, this is a mission to create an anchor experience that re-positions Lumbini, helps uplift the communities that are a part of it, and unleashes its true potential.”
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