Lankan archaeologist to join int'l excavation team at Lumbini

A Sri Lankan archaeologist is set to join an international team of experts researching the social and economic conditions prevailing during the Buddhist era at Buddha's birth place, Lumbini in Nepal.
Prof Prishantha Gunawardhana from the Department of Archaeology at Kelaniya University will leave today for Kapilavastu in Lumbini and will be the only Sri Lankan to take part in the research.
"As a result of a research done one and a half months ago, a very important determination of Buddha's birth era came to be known. The research will now be expanded to delve further into the social and economic conditions that prevailed at the city of Kapilavastu during the Buddha era", Prof Gunawardhana said.

The research, led by Robin Coningham, Professor at Durham University in the UK would also look at Kapilavastu's urbanisation if any during the period.
"This was a main city during the Buddhist era according to literature", the professor said.
Coningham and his team had found a timber structure dating back to the sixth century BC, which strongly suggests that Gautam Buddha was born in Lumbini in Nepal in that era, two centuries earlier than previously thought.

Lumbini, widely considered to be the birthplace of the Buddha based on the presence of a sandstone pillar with an inscription recording a visit by Emperor Ashoka in the third century BC.

Archaeologists call it the oldest Buddhist shrine in the world.
Located in the Rupandehi district of central Nepal near its border with India, Lumbini was named a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1997.
Tens of thousands of Sri Lankan Buddhists pay homage there annually.