King Birendra ordered destruction of Buddha statue

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    Kathmandu, Aug 8 (IANS) A former Nepali minister Monday said then King Birendra of Nepal had ordered the demolition of a Buddha statute. Veteran politician Homnath Dahal, who was local development minister when King Gyanendra seized power in 2005, said his predecessor King Birendra ordered the army to knock down a statue of the Buddha built in western Nepal. Dahal, a member of the opposition Nepali Congress party, said he was a journalist in the 1990s when the shocking incident occurred and he reported it in the ‘Rastriya Pukar’ publication. According to the former minister, the king, who was regarded as an incarnation of a Hindu god and wielded absolute power, had ordered that foreigners would not be able to build Buddhist monasteries in Nepal except in Lumbini, the sacred birthplace in southern Nepal. However, a renowned Japanese monk, who had also built a Buddhist monastery in India’s Orissa state, wanted to establish monasteries in Nepal to propagate Buddhism. The Japanese was helped by a former minister from the Nepali Congress, Min Bahadur Gurung. Gurung offered the Japanese preacher his own personal land in Pokhara city, now a popular tourist destination in western Nepal. Dahal said to throw dust in the eyes of the government, Gurung built a small temple on his land and then installed a Buddha statue there. When Birendra came to know, he sent the army who razed down the temple and ‘kicked down’ the Buddha statue, Dahal wrote Monday in the Nagarik daily. Though he reported the desecration, Dahal said ‘there was no reaction’ in Nepal. Once the only Hindu kingdom in the world, though Nepal now takes immense pride in being the birthplace of the Buddha, Buddhists however say they live in neglect and repression. Five years after Nepal became secular, the government is yet to offer any financial assistance to its nearly 5,000 monasteries and Buddhist shrines though it has earmarked funds for four major Hindu institutions. The Nepal Buddhist Federation said in a recent press statement that harsh treatment to monks and nuns do not generally make news in Nepal. ‘On the contrary the monasteries and nunneries in general have been the subject of systematic negative media campaign… including such baseless allegation as possessing weapons,’ it said, adding, ‘Our monks and nuns live in perpetual fear.’ King Birendra, who was killed along with nine family members in a massacre in the royal palace in 2001, was regarded as a benevolent dictator who was flexible enough to agree to curb his own absolute powers in 1990 following a pro-democracy movement. He also lifted the ban on political parties imposed by his father Mahendra and agreed to become a constitutional monarch, handing over power to an elected government. Nepal’s government-conducted inquiry into the carnage says Birendra’s son Dipendra was responsible for the bloodbath as he was angered by his father’s surrender of absolute power and preventing him from marrying the girl he wanted to. (Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in) Original link to article - http://www.inewsone.com/2011/0... ... atue/67554   Last edited: 08-Aug-11 07:33 PM

DHaRaNe-DADA · Aug 8, 2011 7:32 PM · 19,667 views

14 Replies

 Another reason why monarchy is not good for our country. I, myself was raised in Hindu family but I am saddened to hear about these activities of so called kings. We need religious freedom in Nepal. (Also, we might need to create awarness of evangelic christian trying to spread it's nefarious roots in our country.)         

nayanepalibabu · Aug 8, 2011 9:39 PM

यो गैसकेको राज्तन्त्र प्रती घ्रिणा फैलाउने कुत्सित खबर हो | बुद्द को मुर्ती ले बिरेन्द्र सग खान मागेको थियो ?? तैपनी राजाहरु भन्ना साथ सुरा ,सुन्दरी ,मोज्मस्ती कै कुरा आउछ ,केही न् पाएर मुर्ती फोरेर बस्ला ?

prabhat41 · Aug 8, 2011 11:06 PM

 oralo lageko bacha lai mriga le pani khedcha bhanya yehi hola. Shah kings could demolish all the budha statues and stupas in 18th or 19th century if wanted. But, building nepali version of stupas and budha temple are one thing erecting tibetian buddha statues and monasteris is different thing.  

NALAPANI · Aug 9, 2011 12:55 AM

Karma in action.

YoTaBhayanaNiSom · Aug 9, 2011 7:44 AM

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} This is nothing but a bull crap and very well planned and well staged propaganda against nepal’s then royals and nepali social and religious harmony. I am not surprised why this is published in Indian backed media. On contrary, being Nepali Buddhist myself, I think royals have greatly contributed to the development of Bihars, Bahals, Bahis and so on. Kings always participated “samyak” puja and actively participated in renovation of many Buddhist shrines and monuments. Example –hiranya barna mahabihar, achheyswor maha bihar, renovation of chusya bahal was in fact completed during the royal regime. Most of the KTM culture and tradition participated by then royals are strictly guided by Buddhist culture and tradition, for ex. Kumari living goddess is not hindu kanya-is absolutely purely BUDDHIST girl, to which HINDU king would kneed down.   So, stop this sort of  bull crap, your secular parties have turned down the deal of Lumbini Development proposed by China, while Lumbni development plan was initiated by then royals who brought Japanese planner to prepare master plan of lumbini. Thanks to that you are still being able to put your FB status " yes buddha was born in nepal".. Moron get a life!!! Last edited: 09-Aug-11 08:57 AM

shantipriya · Aug 9, 2011 8:57 AM

Who is Homnath Dahal and how credible is this person? can he provide any proof of this event? for all i know this guy could be stirring up propoganda against the emerging support for the monarchs in Nepal currently. So far this has only been a said and tell story...any solid proof would be good. Last edited: 09-Aug-11 09:07 AM

chaurey · Aug 9, 2011 9:05 AM

Nepal's hinduism and buddhism are the two faces of the same coin..news like this are only done to create propoganda and spread the message of hate and divisiveness...there is no proof of any of this and every nepali i know is as buddhist as they are hindus..!!!

PaulinaDidi · Aug 9, 2011 1:06 PM

While I wholeheartedly agree with Paulinadidi, I would not be as certain of what the wild animals that once roamed the Narayanhiti National Park are/were capable of doing...

YoTaBhayanaNiSom · Aug 9, 2011 1:12 PM

 शाहहरुले मुर्ति फोर्ने चाहिं थाह छैन, मुर्ति चोर्ने काम चाहिं पक्कै गरेका हुन् |

jay-z · Aug 9, 2011 2:15 PM

bunch of ran_dy ko chora maobadi's talking here... what a b/s

khambhu · Aug 10, 2011 12:19 PM

Does criticizing ex-royals automatically make you a maoist?

YoTaBhayanaNiSom · Aug 10, 2011 1:03 PM

Although i agree 100% about the injustice and pain that nepali people had to suffer from the hands of shah dynasty and pancheys et al...i do however think this particular incident in question is doubtful without any evidence to support it. and yes i whole heartedly believe rana/shah dynasty are to be blamed for triggering series of events that has led to the present day situation in Nepal. The shah dynasty had multiple golden chances, with huge public support  as early as Gyanendra coming to power, to make a difference but their greed got the better of them. As far as I am concerned, the shah dynasty and their panchey goons have not been held accountable for raping Nepal during their rule. We have forgotten how the pancheys took advantage by inflicting fear tactics and propoganda for over 30 years. ok i do not want to veer off topic much longer. long story short...I don't know what the answer is....on one hand we have the present day leeches ruling Nepal and on the other we have the vampires that sucked the blood of Nepali people for decades trying to make a move. i just see a sad sad situation unfolding for Nepal and Nepali people.

chaurey · Aug 10, 2011 1:12 PM

YoTaBhayanaNiSom - yo bhalooo, criticizing ex-royals by default does not make you maobadi's.. however King Birendra? you tell me.

khambhu · Aug 10, 2011 3:39 PM

What have the Kings done for the people in absolute terms? How is Birendra, who enjoyed the dictatorship of Panchayat system as long as he could, any different from other Kings? What does "yo bhalooo" mean in your last post?

YoTaBhayanaNiSom · Aug 10, 2011 3:48 PM

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King Birendra ordered destruction of Buddha statue

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