LUMBINI — Lumbini PEACE Marathon has announced to organize Bodh Gaya ENLIGHTENMENT Marathon in Bodh Gaya of India in September 2020.
Bikram Pandey KAAJI, the creator of the successful spiritual sports Lumbini Peace Marathon, made this announcement during his speech at the Global Religious Tourism Dialogue held in New Delhi, India last week.
“This is the third episode Lumbini PEACE Marathon has made its successful mark, and it is already making its way to Bodh Gaya, following the footsteps of Siddhartha Gautam in 3rd Century BC in the same spirit of Siddhartha Gautam’s Renunciation of palatial life of Kapilvastu in search of enlightenment,” says Bikram in his speech. “So, if Bodh Gaya has given the birth of enlightenment, Lumbini is giving the birth of Spiritual Sports in Bodh Gaya,” Bikram maintains.
The marathon will be called Bodh Gaya ENLIGHTENMENT Marathon and is planned for the Full Moon Day of September in 2020.
The beautiful part is Indian Tourism Minister Mr. Alphons Kannanthanam is highly impressed with Bikram’s concept of spiritual sports, and his interest to connect Lumbini with Bodh Gaya by way of spiritual marathon running.
Says the minister: “We will work with you on this project, Bikram.”
India appreciating this kind of connectivity through spiritual sports tourism has become the best news for us in Nepal.
The marathon route runs through the tapped and untapped Buddhist heritage sites of Bodh Gaya, bringing to light for tourism opportunity. The marathon will have two categories – international standard full marathon of 42.195 kilometers and Half Marathon of 21 kilometers. This will be the first marathon of its kind like spiritual sports. The organizers are expecting massive footfalls of international as well as Indian marathon runners in the inaugural event.
The trail expects to cover major attractions in Bodh Gaya like 82-feet Buddha Statue, Mahakala Caves, Senani Gaon, Sujata Village, Mahabodhi Temple, among other Buddhist attractions in Bodh Gaya.
Once the Bodh Gaya ENLIGHTENMENT Marathon is successfully established, we are hoping to expand the marathon to Sarnath and Kushinagar and Kalinga from where Emperor Ashoka transformed himself to Buddha’s path after a massive bloodshed in the Kalinga War, said Dipak Rai, spokesperson of Lumbini Peace Marathon.
Point to remember is that Emperor Ashoka then visited Lumbini, Kapilvastu, Gotihawa, and Niglihawa, he even erected Ashokan Pillars authenticating those sites as the testimonial. Because of Emperor Ashoka, Kapilvastu is also known as the Land of Three Buddhas – Krakuchanda Buddha, Kanakmuni Buddha, and Shakyamuni Buddha. It is also believed that Emperor Ashoka also visited Kathmandu – the testimony for which is four Ashokan Stupas of Lalitpur and Charumati Bihar of Chabahil.
