Ramagrama Chedi
It’s said that when Buddha died, his body was cremated and the remains were distributed to eight kingdoms. Each of these kingdoms buried the relics of Buddha in their own stupa. In the years since, all but one of them have been opened and the contents distributed across the world. The stupa that has never been opened since being built over 2,500 years ago, is here at Ramagrama, in present day Nepal. Rāmagrāma was a major city of the Koliya kingdom (this settlement is sometimes referred to as Koliyanagara).
Legend says that Emperor Asoka came to the stupa at Ramagrama in 249 BC and planned to open it and retrieve the relics of Buddha. But, when he arrived, he had a vision of a snake god that told him not to interfere with the site, and so he left it alone and worshipped at it instead.
Today, all you’ll be able to see is a grassy mound but excavation work has determined that there is a stupa within it. Although experts have studied the site, there is an agreement to not open the stupa, to maintain its sanctity.
(Below is a transcription of the text on the sign on site:)
Ramagrama Stupa is one amongst the eight original relic stupas built over the corporeal remains of the Buddha. Inscribed on UNESCO Tentative World Heritage property in 1996, Ramagrama is a site of great archaeological and pilgrimage importance as it is believed to contain the only relic stupa of Sakyamuni Buddha not opened by Emperor Asoka in the 3rd Century BC.
According to the Buddhist traditions the dead body of the Buddha after attaining Mahaparinirmana was cremated by the Mallas of Kushinagar and the mortal remains were distributed amongst eight claimants including the Koliyas of Ramagrama.
According to legends, when Emperor Asoka visited teh site and wished to open the stupa in order to re-distribute the relics to 84,000 small stupas thoughout his vast empire, he was prevented from doing so by a Dragon King. Hence, it became the only unopened stupa of the eight to contain Sakyamuni Buddha’s mortal remains.
The mound structure was first discovered by 1899 by Dr W. Hoey, a historian from the Asiatic Society of Bengal before it was confirmed to be a stupa by S. B. Deo later in 1964.
Exacavation of the stupa was conducted by Kashi Prasad Jayaswal Research Institute of Patna in the year 1958. The archaeological exacations carried out by department of archaelogy, Nepal in 1997 have unearthed grey ware, Painted Grew Ware (PGW), and Northern Black Polished (NBP) ware. Other noteworthy discoveries of the excavations include beads, bangles, and art objects of various periods.
Other important sites/monuments include sacred Jharahi Lake, Jharahi River, and a Temple, built by a Japanese Buddhist Organization, Bishinokai, consisting a standing image of the Buddha.
(Government of Nepal, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Lumbini Development Trust, Sacred Garden, Lumbini, Nepal, www.lumbinidevtrust.gov.np)
Stupa measures 10m high and 23.5m in diameter. It is the only one of the original eight nirvana stupas that was not reopened by the Emperor Asoka.
Famers had called this the unlucky field, as no crops would grow in it. When a geophysical survey was conducted, it identified a perfect quadrangular Kushan monastery buried below hte surface. The dense concentration of brick would have made it difficult for crops to establish themselves.
Kushan Monastery. Further quadrangular cells were found in this area forming part of the wider Kushan monastery at the site.
A series of brick walls are visible on the surface in this area. Their function and form is unknown.
(Image captions:
View of the stupa from the west.
Results of the geophysical survey.
Geophysical survey of the “unlucky field”.)
Ramagrama is on the tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage Status, and has attacted archaeological interest since 1896. The most striking feature of the site is its massive stupa, which is ten metres high and 23.5 metres in diameter. Referencing the itineraries of the Chinese pilgrims, Faxian (5th Century CE) and Xuanzang (7th Century CE), B. K. Rijial of Nepal’s Department of Archaelogy identified the stupa as Ramagrama, one of the original eight stupas that housed the cremated remains of lord buddha. Tradition records that the other 7 stupas were reopened during the Mauryan period and their relics redistributed. It is blieved that when Asoka went to open the stupa at Ramagrama, he was prevented from doing so by its guardian snake or naga.
Xuanzhang carefully recorded this tradition as well as the presence of the stupa, a pilllar and a temple, now at the centre of an island formed by an old oxbow of the Jharahi River and a modern canal. Geophysical surveys of subsurface archaeological features were conducted in 1997, 1999, and 2018. These identified the presence of several quadrangular brick monasteries to the east and north of the stupa. Some of these structures were excavated by Sukra Sagar Shrestha of the DoA between 1999 and 2004. His research confirmed the site’s occupation between the Mauryan and Gupta periods.
