Lumbini Tour

A flight of thirty-five minutes takes us to Bhairahawa in the Terai, and it is a short drive from there to Lumbini. The afternoon is spent in the sacred garden itself: the Maya Devi temple, built over the marker stone that identifies the exact spot of the birth; the Ashokan pillar raised in 249 BCE, which records the emperor's visit and is the reason the site can be identified at all; the sacred pond where Maya Devi is said to have bathed; and the excavated foundations of monasteries going back to the third century BCE. It is a working pilgrimage site as much as a monument, and quietest late in the day when the coaches have gone and the light is low. Overnight near the garden.

A full day at the wider site. The monastic zone stretches north from the sacred garden along a canal, laid out to a master plan drawn up by the Japanese architect Kenzo Tange in the 1970s, and each Buddhist nation has built its own temple in its own tradition - Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Korea, Germany, France and a dozen more. Walking between them is the clearest illustration anywhere of how far the teaching travelled and how differently it was understood at each stop. In the afternoon we drive out to Tilaurakot, about half an hour away, the archaeological site widely identified as ancient Kapilavastu, where the Buddha spent his first twenty-nine years - brick foundations, a moat and the eastern gate through which he is said to have left.

Back to the sacred garden early, before the crowds, which is when it is at its best - the Maya Devi temple in the first light with the pilgrims already circling and very few visitors. There is time for a last walk under the bodhi trees before breakfast. We then drive to Bhairahawa for the flight back to Kathmandu, arriving in the middle of the day. Lumbini also connects by road to Chitwan in about four hours, and the two combine well if you have the time.