Ram Bahadur Bamjan, believed to be the reincarnation of Buddha, looks on as devotees come to seek his blessings, in Nijgadh town, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Katmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008. Bamjan, 18, has re-emerged from the jungle in southern Nepal, attracting thousands of devotees, officials said Tuesday. After retreating into the jungle for more than a year, he re-emerged Monday.

                                      

Wed Nov 12, 4:11 AM ET

Ram Bahadur Bamjan, in white, believed to be the reincarnation of Buddha, blesses a Buddhist monk in Nijgadh town, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Katmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008. Bamjan, 18, has re-emerged from the jungle in southern Nepal, attracting thousands of devotees, officials said Tuesday. After retreating into the jungle for more than a year, he re-emerged Monday.

                                                           

Wed Nov 12, 4:07 AM ET

Ram Bahadur Bamjan, right, believed to be the reincarnation of Buddha is surrounded by Buddhist monks in Nijgadh town, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Katmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008. Bamjan, 18, has re-emerged from the jungle in southern Nepal, attracting thousands of devotees, officials said Tuesday. After retreating into the jungle for more than a year, he re-emerged Monday.

KATMANDU, Nepal – A Nepalese teenager revered by many as a reincarnation of Buddha has returned to the jungle to meditate after emerging for less than two weeks, officials said Saturday.

Ram Bahadur Bamjan, 18, reappeared on Nov. 10 after several months of meditation to bless thousands of his followers, speaking to them on at least two occasions.

He made his last appearance on Friday and then returned to the jungle to meditate, said Biswo Prakash Newpane, a government administrator in the area. It was not clear when he would return again.

His followers lined up near the jungle of Ratanpur, about 100 miles south of Katmandu, to be blessed by Bamjan. He tapped the believers on their forehead but did not speak to them individually.

The followers believe he has been meditating without food and water since he was first spotted in the jungles of southern Nepal in 2005. Believers say he spent months without moving, sitting with his eyes closed beneath a tree.

Buddhism, which has about 325 million followers, teaches that every soul is reincarnated after death in another bodily form.

But several Buddhist scholars have been skeptical of the claims that Bamjan is a reincarnation of Siddhartha Gautama, who was born in southwestern Nepal roughly 2,500 years ago and became revered as the Buddha, or Enlightened One.

Rakesh, a Buddhist scholar, told the Associated Press last week that being Buddha means the last birth and the highest level that can be achieved and there can be no reincarnation of Buddha, even though Buddhists believe in life after death.




Article: HERE




NOTE: Most articles give his age as 18, but the one below asserts it is 17...

KATHMANDU (Reuters) – A teenage Nepali boy many believe is an incarnation of Lord Buddha went missing after blessing thousands of supporters, police said on Saturday.

Ram Bahadur Bamjon, 17, blessed devotees for nearly 10 days in the remote forest of Ratanpuri, 150 km southeast of Kathmandu before disappearing on Friday, junior police officer Santosh Budhathoki said.

Bamjon came into the limelight in 2005 when tens of thousands of people turned up to see him sitting cross-legged under a tree in a dense forest for nearly ten months. The Buddha is often shown in sketches sitting under a tree in a similar posture.

Ten days ago Bamjon reappeared after almost a year when he had disappeared in order to meditate in the jungle. This is the third time Bamjon has disappeared since his first appearance three years ago.

Thousands of people, some out of sheer curiosity, including many from neighbouring India walked to the site in the middle of dense forests to see him this time.

"He gave a 25 minute religious discourse to more than 5,000 people on Friday then went into an underground site for meditation," Budhathoki said.

He said the boy had wrapped a white cloth around his body and sometimes sat for more than 12 hours at one stretch during the discourse.

"Not everyone can do this without any special power which he has," Budhathoki said. "Whether he is a Buddha I can't say."

Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born a prince in Lumbini, a sleepy town in Nepal's rice-growing plains about 350 km southwest of Kathmandu more than 2,600 years ago.

He is believed to have attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, which borders Nepal.

(For the latest Reuters news on Nepal see: in.reuters.com, for blogs see blogs.reuters.com/in/)




Article: HERE

                                         

Sat Nov 22, 7:03 AM ET