A teenage boy in Nepal whose followers believe is the reincarnation of Buddha has suddenly gone missing after 10 months of meditation, allegedly without food or water, officials said yesterday.
Followers of Ram Bahadur Banjan, 15, reported his disappearance and a police team has been sent to the jungles of Bara, about 160km south of the capital, Kathmandu, to investigate, said Santaraj Subedi, the chief government official in the district.
It was still unclear when he went missing, but initial reports said he was last seen on Friday.
Subedi said police were investigating if the boy just wandered into the jungle or he was abducted by robbers.
Banjan has been sitting cross-legged and motionless with eyes closed in a niche among the roots of a tree in the jungle since May 17 last year, according to his associates, who claim he has had no food or water during that period.
In recent months, thousands of people have come to glimpse the boy, many who believe Banjan is a reincarnation of Gautama Siddhartha, who was born not far away in southwestern Nepal around 500BC and later became revered as the Buddha.
Officials who investigated the claim never interviewed the boy and were unable to verify the claims.
Visitors have only been allowed to view the Banjan between dawn and dusk from a roped-off area about 25m away.
His followers kept him from public view at night, when they would place a screen in front of him.
Buddhist priests who visited him said the boy was not the incarnation of Buddha but believed he had been meditating for months.
Buddhism teaches that right thinking and self-control can enable people to achieve nirvana -- a divine state of peace and release from desire.
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
COMMUNITY CONFLICT: Concerns about disease spread from corpses has run up against friends and families’ desire to bury their dead as infection spreads in the area Angry residents of a town at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) attacked and burned a tent that was part of a health center where people are being treated for the virus, the staff there said Saturday. It was the second such attack in the region in a week. No one was hurt in the attack, according to reports but as patients ran out to escape the fire, 18 people with suspected Ebola infections fled the facility and are unaccounted for, a hospital director said. Angry residents arrived at the clinic in the
Forecasters in Europe yesterday warned of exceptional heat as record temperatures driven by a “heat dome” push temperatures well above seasonal norms across the continent. The surge follows a record-breaking Monday, with France logging its hottest day in the month of May on record, its weather agency said, and the UK also posting unprecedented highs. A so-called “heat dome” of warm air from northern Africa trapped under a high-pressure system over western Europe is behind the high temperatures not usually seen until high summer. Restrictions on outdoor work were imposed in parts of Italy, beaches in southwest France filled earlier than usual and
RSS