Boy Buddha - A young boy named Ram Bahadur Bamjan is worshipped by many in Nepal as the reincarnation of Buddha.
The boy Buddha, Ram Bahadur Bamjan, is 18 years old and has been followed by Buddhist monks since he was first spotted meditating without food and water in the jungles of southern Nepal in 2005, when believers say he spent months without moving, sitting with his eyes closed beneath a tree.
Bamjan re-emerged this week to meet his followers, who have come by the thousands to see him in the jungles of Ratanpur, about 100 miles south of Katmandu, but he has not yet spoken.
Bamjan is expected to address his followers on November 18 and then retreat again into the jungle for meditation, said Kamal Tamang, a Buddhist priest who is one of his followers.
Bamjan receives pilgrims from atop a podium covered in yellow cloth situated before a massive tree. Ram looked healthy and strong, showing no signs of starvation or dehydration.
Some Buddhist scholars are skeptical of the claims that Bamjan is the reincarnation of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddhist monk born in southwestern Nepal 2,500 years ago who became revered as the Buddha, or Enlightened One.
“Being Buddha means the last birth and the highest level that can be achieved. There can be no reincarnation of Buddha, even though Buddhists believe in life after death,” said Rakesh, a Buddhist scholar in Katmandu who goes by only one name.
“Meditating without food does not prove that he is the reincarnation of Buddha,” said Min Bahadur Shakya of the Nagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods, a Buddhist research center in Katmandu. “There is much study needed to be done.”
And that’s the latest news on Ram Bahadur Bamjan, the Boy Buddha.
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