No news yet about missing "little Buddha"
Abduction is feared but the police don't believe this. The 15-year-old sat under a tree in meditation for 10 months, without food or water.
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) There is no news yet of the "Little Buddha", the 15-year-old Nepalese boy who since 24 May 2005, according to his followers, has sat in a state of meditation, without eating or drinking. The "Little Buddha" disappeared in the early hours of 11 March.
The youth, Ram Bahadur Bomjan from Ratnapur village in Bara district, some 250 km south of Kathmandu, sat under a pipal (fig tree considered sacred) tree for months in meditation. Thousands of people acclaimed him as the reincarnation of Buddha and went to see him with gifts and money donations. In a few months, 1.2 million Nepalese rupees were collected, "a hefty sum when one considers that most of his visitors were poor people," said a government official.
"We immediately mounted an intensive search operation. But until now we have no concrete inkling about his whereabouts," the district police chief, Madhav Prasad Nepal, told AsiaNews.
The boy's disappearance may well be linked to Nepal's political situation. The sociologist, Ravindra Tiwary, told AsiaNews: "Some are speculating that the security forces took him away to a secret place because his presence in the area, which is infested by Maoists, was creating security problems and the Maoists were taking most of the money and gifts given by people." He added: "Others said the Maoists kidnapped him to ask for a ransom from the donations, or else to prevent the growth among the population of religious devotion which would impede their violent ideology."
Police sources, however, are convinced that the "Little Buddha went off by himself."
The Siddharta Lama, a member of the committee which runs the meditation centre that sprung up around the boy, does not believe in the kidnapping theory either. He said the boy may have fled the excessive confusion. His parents do not want to talk about his disappearance. Bomjan developed an interest in Buddhism after he dropped out of school and went to Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha in Nepal and the Indian Bodh Gaya, where Buddha attained "enlightenment" 2,600 years ago.
Ravindra Tiwary said: "The majority of the people hailing him as the 'new Buddha incarnate' have been indigenous tribals who are fundamentally followers of Buddhism. But even hundreds of Hindus flocked to offer prayers to the child Buddha Many people have been keeping an eye on him to see if he surreptitiously took some herbs or some pills to overcome hunger and thirst. But none could saw him swallow anything during past 10 months. He even wore the same tunic during the cold water and heavy downpour."
The place has become a pilgrimage destination, with barriers put up at 40metres around the tree, to regulate queues of visitors.
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