Lumbini Tour

• The Maya Devi Temple: The marker stone identifying the exact birthplace, and the Ashoka Pillar inscribed in 249 BC.

• The Monastic Zone: More than twenty national monasteries in a three-kilometre park, each in its own architectural tradition.

• Tilaurakot, Ancient Kapilvastu: The excavated palace where the Buddha lived until he was twenty-nine, twenty-seven kilometres west and almost empty.

• The World Peace Pagoda: The Japanese-built stupa at the northern end of the park, best at sunset.

• Flights Both Ways: Kathmandu to Bhairahawa in forty minutes rather than eight hours on the highway.

The Maya Devi Temple is a low white building housing the excavated foundations of earlier shrines, and at the centre a marker stone identified by archaeologists as the precise spot of the birth. Photography inside is not permitted. Beside it stands the Ashoka Pillar, erected by the emperor in 249 BC and carrying an inscription stating that he came in person and exempted the village from tax — the earliest hard evidence for the site.

The Puskarini pool beside the temple is where Queen Maya Devi is said to have bathed, and the Bodhi tree above it is hung with thousands of prayer flags. Around all of this are the brick foundations of monasteries and stupas from the third century BC to the fifth century AD. It is a quiet, low-key place rather than a spectacular one, and it rewards an unhurried visit at dawn or dusk.

The tour flies Kathmandu to Bhairahawa — Gautam Buddha International Airport — in about forty minutes, then drives twenty-two kilometres to Lumbini. The alternative is eight to ten hours on the Prithvi and Mahendra highways, which we will arrange at a lower price if you prefer, but the flight buys you most of a day at each end.

October to March is the season. The Terai is hot: temperatures reach the low forties in May and June and the humidity through the monsoon is heavy. December and January are ideal for walking the park, though morning fog on the plains occasionally delays the flight. Avoid April to June unless you are comfortable in serious heat, and note that the monsoon brings mosquitoes as well as rain.

Tilaurakot, twenty-seven kilometres west, is the archaeological site most scholars identify as Kapilvastu, the Shakya capital where Siddhartha Gautama lived as a prince until he left at twenty-nine. The excavations show a moat, fortification walls, gateways and the foundations of the palace complex, set in mango groves. There is almost never anybody there, and it is the part of this tour that people remember.

Nearby are the stupas at Gotihawa and Niglihawa, both with Ashokan pillar fragments, and further east lies Ramagrama, the only one of the eight original relic stupas of the Buddha never opened — an unexcavated earth mound still holding its portion of the ashes. Your guide will build the second day around whichever of these interests you.

Lumbini is an active pilgrimage site and modest dress is expected: shoulders and knees covered, in the sacred garden and in every monastery. Shoes come off at the Maya Devi Temple and at monastery entrances, so footwear that slips off easily saves a great deal of bending. Photography is not allowed inside the Maya Devi Temple and is restricted in some monastery halls.

The park is large and flat — three kilometres from the sacred garden to the World Peace Pagoda — and the standard way to cover it is by bicycle or electric rickshaw, both included. Bring sunscreen, a hat and plenty of water; there is very little shade in the central canal area. Insect repellent is worth carrying at any time of year and essential from June to September.

• Lumbini Travel Guide: The Birthplace of the Buddha — A UNESCO site in the Terai where Siddhartha Gautama was born in 623 BCE, with an Ashokan pillar, the marker stone, an international monastic zone.

• Meditation Retreats in Nepal After a Trek: Vipassana, Kopan and Lumbini — If you have a week to spare after a trek, a retreat is the deepest way to use it.

• Buddhist Pilgrimage Tour in Nepal: The Complete Guide — Eight days from Lumbini, where the Buddha was born, through Kapilvastu where he grew up, to the living tradition at Boudhanath, Swayambhunath and Namobuddha.

• Best of Nepal Tour: The Complete Guide — Ten days covering the four things Nepal is known for — the medieval cities, the Himalaya from the valley rim and Pokhara, the jungle at Chitwan.

• Nepal Cultural Tour Itineraries: 5 to 14 Days Without Trekking — Nepal without walking: medieval Newar cities, a jungle safari, a lakeside town, a sunrise ridge and the birthplace of the Buddha.