Ramagrama stupa

The Malla Mahajanapada

Gautama Buddha's parents were from two different mahājanapadās (kingdoms) of the Solar dynasty — his father (Śuddhodana) belonged to the Shakya kingdom, while his mother (Maya) was from the Koliya kingdom. According to Buddhist texts, after Buddha's Mahaparinirvana, his cremated remains were divided and distributed among the princes of eight of the sixteen mahājanapadās. Each of the princes constructed a stupa at or near his capital city, within which the respective portion of the ashes was enshrined.[4] These eight stupas were located at:

1. Allakappa, a settlement of the Bulī people. The precise location of this place is not currently known.[5][6]
2. Kapilavastu, capital city of the Shakya kingdom[7] (the location of this stupa is the subject of some controversy; there is evidence it was actually constructed at Piprahwa)[8][9]
3. Kusinārā, capital city of one of the two Malla republics[10]
4. Pāvā, capital city of the other Malla republics[11]
5. Rājagaha a major city of the Magadha kingdom[12]
6. Rāmagrāma, a major city of the Koliya kingdom (this settlement is sometimes referred to as Koliyanagara)[13][14]
7. Vesāli, capital city of the Vajjika League[15]
8. Veṭhadīpa, a settlement of Veṭhadīpaka Brahmins. The precise location of this place is not currently known.[16]

Some 300 years later, Emperor Ashoka opened seven of these stupas and removed the Buddha relics (his goal was to redistribute the relics into 84,000 stupas which he planned to construct throughout the Maurya Empire). According to legend, the serpent king was guarding the Ramagrama stupa, and prevented Ashoka from unearthing the relic, making it one of the eight undisturbed stupas.

To this day, Ramagrama stupa remains the only intact and original stupa containing relics of Buddha.[2] The stupa has been an object of great reverence and pilgrimage site since its original construction. The 7-metre-high (23 ft) stupa is now buried under a mound of earth and is awaiting further research.[4] The dimensions of the stupa complex are 10m high and 23.5m in diameter. A geophysical survey revealed a perfect quadrangular Kushan monastery buried below the surface, whose dense concentration of brick prevented crops from growing, leading to the area being known as an "unlucky field".[3]

This site was added to the World Heritage Tentative List by UNESCO on May 23, 1996 in the Cultural category.[2]

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  statue and entrance gate at Ramagrama stupa
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  statue and entrance gate at Ramagrama stupa
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  pathway leading to Ramagrama stupa
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  view of Ramagrama stupa
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  view of Ramagrama stupa
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  sacred Bodhi tree (Ficus religiosa) at Ramagrama stupa
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  sacred Bodhi tree at Ramagrama stupa
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  a bas-relief of the Ramagrama stupa, from the east gateway of Great Stupa at Sanchi, in Raisen District of the State of Madhya Pradesh, India
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  a bas-relief of the Ramagrama stupa, from the Catalogue of the Museum of Archaeology at Sarnath in 1914

• Ayodhya
• Dasharatha
• Ikshvaku dynasty
• Kshatriya
• List of stupas in Nepal
• Mahapadma Nanda

• The Accumulate Stupa of Ramagrama

• Ramgram Stupa, the Buddha relic stupa of Nepal
• Ramgram Stupa ko Behal-Nawalparsi (video in Nepali language)