Make yourself heard

As part of the World Peace Movement, Nepalese people living in different parts of the world last year decided to commemorate Lumbini and Kapilavastu, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, by observing Kapilvastu Day as a global holiday in order to spread the Buddha’s peace and nonviolence messages all over the world. The Buddha is revered as a Messenger of Peace. He is also known as the Light of Asia who is actually the Light of the world as his message of peace and nonviolence has become more relevant as the world is facing the problems of violence today. The world today has become more violent than ever before. Therefore, we have decided to spread the messages of the Buddha all over the world by observing Kapilvastu Day every year.

Originally, on December 1, 1896, Dr Anton Führer, a German archaeologist, had discovered the Buddha’s birthplace when he found the Asoka Pillar at Lumbini. Even though this site was first discovered by Khadga Shamsher Rana before Führer had reached the site but Führer is credited for this discovery as he brought it into light and made it known to the international community.

The Asoka Pillar is the most important evidence that Buddha was born in Lumbini. Therefore, it was decided to observe December 1 as Kapilavastu Day. The historic Kapilavastu, located close to Lumbini, is considered to be another holy pilgrimage for the Buddhists since it was the place where the Buddha grew up and which he later renounced seeking to understand the cause of human sufferings. The result of years of excavations and researches by numerous national and international teams has been that Tilaurakot is the historic Kapilvastu which UNESCO should certify as another World Heritage, next to Lumbini.

After celebrating the Kapilvastu Day as the Global Day for the first time in history on December 1, 2009, we discussed on how to keep the program going ahead. Hence a 19 member committee (which will be of 21- member in the future) has been formed as the Kapilvastu Day Movement Global Committee under Ram Kumar Shrestha’s leadership. The committee is constituted as follows:

1. Ram Kumar Shrestha - Global Coordinator, UK
2. Abi Sharma - Coordinator,Canada
3. Baburaja Maharjan - Coordinator, Newzealand
4. Bhanu Poudyal - Special Coordinator, Canada
5. Binay Shah - Coordinator, Hongkong
6. Chandra Rai - Coordinator, Canada
7. Dr.Hari Kumar Shrestha - Coordinator, Taiwan
8. Hari Nepali - Coordinator, Qatar
9. Laxman Devkota - Coordinator, Portugal
10. Laxman Puri - Coordinator, Nepal
11. Mrs Laxmi Simkhada - Coordinator, USA
12. Om Gurung - Coordinator, Japan
13. Raj Shrestha - Coordinator, Nepal
14. Ramhari Shrestha - Coordinator, UK
15. Santosh Neupane - Coordinator, Belgium
16. Miss Sanu Ghimire - Coordinator, Australia
17. Shailesh Shrestha - Coordinator, USA
18. Shambhu Kattel - Coordinator, USA
19. Sujan Neupane - Coordinator, Australia

To make the movement more effective and to simplify the decision making process of the committee a nine member secretariat has been formed and the secretariat members shall be the regional coordinators of corresponding regions as follows:

a) Baburaja Maharjan (Australia, Newzealand and surrounding countries),
b) Hari Nepal (Middle East),
c) Binay Shah and Om Gurung (Japan, Hongkong, China and surrounding countries),
d) Shailesh Shrestha (USA and South America),
e) Chandra Rai (Canada)
f) Santosh Neupane (Europe).
g) Raj Shrestha (SAARC)
The Global Coordinator shall be the Chief in the secretariat which shall be located in London.

Bhanu Poudyal shall be designated as the Special Coordinator, to inform those who are misinformed particularly on Lumbini, and the birth place of the Buddha.

To smoothly spread the Movement’s Peace Mission at national and International levels a seven member Advisory Board shall be formed with the following members:

a) Mr. Agni Frank Eickermann (writer, Founder of Spiritual Teachers Training, Alpha Chi Consultants, and "Path into Light", Speaker: Spirituality, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Feng Shui, Management solutions, Golden Age, USA),
b) Dr. Arzu Rana-Deuba (CA member and MP),
c) HE Deepak Khadaka (Consulate General, NSW, Australia),
d) Ms Domo Geshe Rinpoche (Spiritual Director, White Conch Dharma Center, USA),
e) Dr. Kavitaram Shrestha (writer and founder of Aswikrit Movement),
f) Mr. Rajendra Shrestha (former minister), and
g) HE Dr. Rishi Adhikari (Nepali Ambassador to Malaysia)

The Movement expects coordination and cooperation in attaining its objectives from Nepal government, intellectuals, journalists and all peace movement committed institutions from different part of the world and committed to give its hands to all peace loving institutions.

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