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Why does Lumbini get fewer visitors than Bodh Gaya?


According to our media reports, the World Bank (WB) has decided to approve a US$85 million loan to support Greater Lumbini Area Development Project in hopes that it will help to bring in more tourists. It seems that our major international donors, be it the WB, ADB, or other foreign countries, hand out loans and grants for training or building systems that do not actually do any good in the long run.

Yes, the WB claims that when this loan is approved by the cabinet, it will help to benefit thousands of young folks and women and small enterprises in the area. If we were to believe these donors then by now, millions of farmers should have benefited from all kinds of digtial access projects funded by the Swiss and the Americans and other foreigners.

If we really want to attract more tourists to Lumbini then first we must get the flight routes to the international airport approved by India. So far, they have not allowed access of international flights coming through their borders directly to Gautam Buddha International Airport. It's been more than 3 years now and our sarkari hakims still have not done any homework and the Indians have no plans to allow their routes to be used for our airport.

Lumbini is where Lord Gautam Buddha was born. We still get pissed off when many foreign Buddhist scholars and even India claim that Buddha was born in India. India became a country in 1947. We became Nepal more than 260+ years ago. And Gautam Buddha was born in his own kingdom way back. Our singer Dhiraj Rai would be the expert when it comes to resolving this issue.

Anyways, Buddha was born in Nepal and then like any good NRN, he went on to get his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya. And while we attract less than hundred thousand foreign tourists who travel via air, Bodh Gaya attracts millions of foreign tourists from Thailand, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and other Buddhist nations. We get like a million visitors to Lumbini, 70% is us Nepalis, then 29% Indian tourists, mostly coming via the Sunauli border and less than 11% foreign tourists other than Indians.

If we look at the Lumbini Development Trust (LDT), it has not done its job well in the past two decades. Even the head of the LDT is a controversial figure who calls himself a Guru but Larkhyal Lama is someone who has citizenship from three different countries, was investigated for money laundering, possession of illegal firearms and was in the news once for having bullets in his bank locker instead of gold or cash or other valuable stuff. He was appointed to the LDT in 2023 for a five-year term from the Maoist quota.

So the first thing we need to do is not appoint Lamas or Buddhist priests but maybe real experts be it in the field of tourism, history or archaeology for a change. I am not accusing the religious leaders who get appointed to head LDT of any corruption or misuse of their authority but maybe we need someone who can think and figure out how to bring both domestic and foreign tourists to stay in Lumbini longer instead of the usual hour or two they spend walking around the temples and visiting foreign monasteries inside Lumbini.

Foreign tourists who visit Bodh Gaya spend a few days and it helps the local economy there be it hotels or guides or taxis or souvenir shops. Here in Lumbini, we have a few luxury hotels where maybe Japanese and Thai tourists do spend a day or two but many prefer to stay in their monasteries. I think the foreign monasteries should be allowed to house their monks but not operate as a guest house for tourists from their countries.

If the government is really serious about promoting Lumbini as the 'must visit' destination for all Buddhists from all around the world then they must get rid of all the cement factories and other industries in the Greater Lumbini Area that has been polluting the place for decades. The government must sit down with the Indians and sort out the access routes for international flights once and for all so that we can allow charter flights from Thailand, Japan, Sri Lanka and other Buddhist nations to directly land in Lumbini rather than TIA.

The LDT has a huge budget but it is misused and the staff there are not worried about the cleanliness of the place and how to provide better services to the visitors. The World Bank wants to spend nearly US$ 15 million to train our government employees on I don't know what but we all know it will be a waste because even if they learn something knew, they will not implement it and go back to the 'stone-age' way of working which they are familiar and comfortable with so that they don't have to work hard and just have tea and chatter as they collect their paychecks.

Hope our new government will figure out something to attract 10,000 tourists per day like they do at Bodh Gaya. Out of a million foreign tourists, not even ten percent visit Lumbini and maybe all of our school educational tours should also stop by at Lumbini instead of only visiting Pokhara and Kathmandu. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Nepalis visit Thailand for shopping or vacation or some other purposes. Maybe it is time we promote Lumbini in Thailand and attract millions of Thais to the birthplace of Buddha.

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