A statue of the Buddha at his birthplace: Lumbini, Nepal.

December (when this picture was taken in 2013) in Lumbini is very cold and misty. There are days the sun remains hidden. Planes get delayed as they cannot fly without a direct line of sight. People huddle by the fire at night and struggle to keep warm. I’ve heard summer heat is almost unbearable and that the monsoon regularly causes floods.

And here it was that 2500 years ago the Buddha of our time took his rebirth in the ancient lands of the Śākya nobility, firmly located in the southern flat lands of present day Nepal.