 Buddha boy has been known to sit in for 12 hours a ta time.
November 23, 2008 9:30 PM
by Buddha Boy Gopal Sharma
KATHMANDU - A teenage Nepali boy many believe is an incarnation of Lord Buddha went missing after blessing thousands of supporters, police said on Saturday.
Ram Bahadur Bamjon, 17, blessed devotees for nearly 10 days in the remote forest of Ratanpuri, 150 km (95 miles) southeast of Kathmandu before disappearing on Friday, junior police officer Santosh Budhathoki said.
Bamjon came into the limelight in 2005 when tens of thousands of people turned up to see him sitting cross-legged under a tree in a dense forest for nearly ten months. The Buddha is often shown in sketches sitting under a tree in a similar posture.
Ten days ago Bamjon reappeared after almost a year when he had disappeared in order to meditate in the jungle. This is the third time Bamjon has disappeared since his first appearance three years ago.
Thousands of people, some out of sheer curosity, including many from neighbouring India walked to the site in the middle of dense forests to see him this time.
"He gave a 25 minute religious discourse to more than 5,000
people on Friday then went into an underground site for
meditation," Budhathoki said.
He said the boy had wrapped a white cloth around his body
and sometimes sat for more than 12 hours at one stretch during
the discourse.
"Not everyone can do this without any special power which
he has," Budhathoki said. "Whether he is a Buddha I can't say."
Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born a prince in
Lumbini, a sleepy town in Nepal's rice-growing plains about 350
km (220 miles) southwest of Kathmandu more than 2,600 years
ago.
He is believed to have attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya
in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, which borders Nepal.
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