By Santosh Ghimire

New Delhi, Jul 6: Nepal's Lumbini, the birthplace of the Lord Buddha, witnessed a the rise in the number of Indian tourists in the past two months after the official visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, authorities here said. Compared to previous months of this year, the number of Indian tourists visiting Lumbini has increased in May and June, giving much-needed fillip to the tourism sector which is still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sacred religious site received 20137 Indian tourists in May and 25065 in June, according to the statistics provided by the Lumbini Development Trust (LDT), a government body which is entrusted to carry out overall development of Lumbini. Lumbini had welcomed 7775, 7745, 18834 and 15284 Indian tourists in the months of January, February, March and April respectively, statistics show.

The sacred religious site received 20137 Indian tourists in May and 25065 in June, according to the statistics provided by the Lumbini Development Trust (LDT), a government body which is entrusted to carry out overall development of Lumbini. Lumbini had welcomed 7775, 7745, 18834 and 15284 Indian tourists in the months of January, February, March and April respectively, statistics show.

Prime Minister Modi paid a day-long official visit to Lumbini on May 16 at the invitation of his Nepali counterpart Sher Bahadur Deuba. During the visit, Modi along with Deuba offered special worship at the revered Mayadevi Temple on the occasion of Buddha Purnima, commemorating the birth, awakening, and death of the Buddha.

Modi and Deuba jointly laid the foundation stone for the India International Centre for Buddhist Culture and Heritage in Lumbini. Once completed, the centre will be a world-class facility welcoming pilgrims from various parts of the world, mostly Buddhists, to enjoy the essence of spiritual aspects of Buddhism, projecting India's growing soft power.

Rajan Basnet, an information officer at the Lumbini Development Trust, said that the number of Indian tourists has gone up in Lumbini after Modi visited there.

"The much-awaited visit of Modi, a charismatic leader of the world and Prime Minister of our closest neighbour, was important for us in many senses. First, Modi highlighted the importance of Lumbini as the birthplace of Lord Buddha, second he also appealed to the Buddhist and other pilgrimages to visit Lumbini in his historic address on the premises of Lumbini," Basnet told Indian Narrative over phone on Wednesday.

Basnet said that Modi's visit has made significant contributions in promoting pilgrim tourism not only in Lumbini but throughout Nepal. In his address, Modi had given the message that all Buddhist pilgrims around the world that they have to first visit Lumbini, where Buddha was born, before going to Bodh Gaya in Bihar, and Sarnath and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh -- the other important sites associated with Buddha's life.

During Modi's official visit, the two countries discussed promotion of religious and cultural tourism by jointly developing the Buddhist Circuit connecting Lumbini, Bodh Gaya in Bihar, and Sarnath and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh. Modi was the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Lumbini, the sacred UNESCO-listed Buddhist site in the Himalayan nation. This was also the fifth visit of Modi to Nepal since he became Prime Minister of India for the first time back in 2014.

In his previous visits to Nepal, Modi had visited three sacred Hindu sites, namely Pashupatinath, Muktinath and Janakpur to further strengthen multi-faceted age-old civilisational ties.