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Paper short abstract:

This paper looks into the politics of Buddhist heritage at Lumbini and shows how it is slowly becoming a dissonant heritage because of the geopolitical race between India and China.

Paper long abstract:

My paper explores the clash of international politics in the Buddhist heritage of Lumbini in Nepal. Listed as a World Heritage Monument in 1997, Lumbini has recently seen the collision of international geopolitics, notably between India and China. The development of Lumbini began in the late 1960s as a UN project. However, the realisation of goals set up in the original Master Plan has been abysmally slow. Acknowledging this, in 2011 a Chinese NGO came forward to develop Lumbini as a premier tourist destination with a proposed investment of £3 billion, allegedly funded by the Chinese government. The Chinese initiation has created an uneasiness on the part of India because Lumbini is less than 4km away from the Indian border. On the contrary, the increasing presence of Buddhist associations affiliated with the Dalai Lama is a cause of concern for China, as Nepal is seen as a 'gateway' to Tibet. The proposed plan is viewed as an example of the increasing geopolitical race in the region. There has also been strong international lobbying to secure the UN endorsement of this project. However, this has been prevented and the UN Secretary General had to cancel his visit to Lumbini on two occasions owing to street protests and strong media lobbying against it in Nepal and in India. In this paper, I will delve deeper into this case and try to explain the intricacies of international geopolitics, Buddhist heritage and religious tourism in Lumbini.