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8<br />
<strong>National</strong> <strong>Upliftment</strong> <strong>Monthly</strong> Cover News<br />
Year : 1, Issue : 4<br />
Lumbini is a peerless landmark<br />
of the Buddhist world. This is<br />
the only active religious place<br />
that has been listed in the<br />
World Heritage Site by the UNESCO.<br />
Lumbini symbolized ultimate peace<br />
and harmony. The eyes of Buddha<br />
are the emblem of love and worship<br />
and kindness and compassion are<br />
the synonym of Buddhism. While the<br />
world is getting restless and tensed<br />
because of various conflicts, the<br />
desire for peace in Nepal also has<br />
become almost like an obsession. At<br />
this critical juncture, declaration of<br />
Lumbini as a World Peace City is very<br />
appropriate and perhaps this is the<br />
only suitable place in this region for<br />
it. Establishment of a World Peace<br />
City in Lumbini is a important and<br />
timely task to be performed; not that<br />
we would, but we should, and we<br />
could.<br />
The purpose of the Lumbini<br />
World Peace City is not to create a<br />
mega-city of the world or does it have<br />
any intention to deface the existing<br />
villages into a shanty town. Its aim<br />
is to set-up a quintessential selfcontained<br />
town of the Buddha’s era<br />
in a 21 century format. Think globally<br />
and act locally is the strategy of<br />
Lumbini World Peace City. The vision<br />
is to build a small, traditional and low<br />
cost but conventional, comprehensive<br />
and innovative city system that carry<br />
a nostalgic ambiance of Kapilbastu<br />
revisited.<br />
Some Beginners of<br />
Lumbini-2004<br />
Karna Sakya<br />
Declaring Lumbini as a World<br />
Peace City contributes significantly in<br />
strengthening national peace process<br />
in the country.<br />
Lumbini may be an intellectual<br />
playground for few, a religious site<br />
for some and a birthplace for many.<br />
But a place like Lumbini cannot be a<br />
prerogative to any casts, creeds and<br />
intellectuals. Peace doesn’t prevail<br />
in the island of the sea of poor.<br />
While developing infrastructure<br />
and undertaking poverty alleviation<br />
program in Lumbini, the World Peace<br />
City should initiates peace education<br />
simultaneously. Peace education<br />
prepares local communities to<br />
voice their realities, experiences,<br />
understandings biases, commitments,<br />
hopes, despair, and at the same time<br />
to fulfill the rights and duties.. The<br />
synergism of religion, wisdom and<br />
action is the formula to make the<br />
peace equation work. Lumbini World<br />
Peace City will be a ‘gift to the Earth’<br />
from Nepal and from the Nepalese<br />
people.<br />
This paper is presented in the<br />
second World Buddhist Summit held in<br />
the holiest land of Buddha’s birthplace<br />
on 30th November 2004. I am grateful<br />
to the organization committee of the<br />
Lumbini Development Trust for giving<br />
me an honor to present a challenging<br />
paper on developing Lumbini as a<br />
World Peace City. It is<br />
indeed a complex<br />
issue to<br />
dwell on
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