PEACE TOUR – Buddhist Pilgrimage Tour - 07 Days

Nepal opens from the air. During the flight, you can see the gorgeous view of mountains, green forest, paddy fields, and even the busy Kathmandu has its one charm from the aerial view. Once you land in Kathmandu, get your visa, claim your luggage, and right outside the airport hall, our representative will be holding a placard of Access Nepal with your name who will provide you a warm Nepali welcome and escort you to the hotel. In the hotel, our representative will be providing you briefing about the whole trip. In the evening we will be organizing a welcome dinner for you guys in a really cozy Nepali restaurant that serves authentic Nepali cuisine with some local cultural show.

According to myth, Kathmandu was once a lake with big hills surrounding it. Manjushree a great warrior from Tibet cut the hill of Chobar, letting all the waterflood and making it good for settlement. During the waterflood, A Buddhist stupa suddenly arose, hence giving the name Swaymbhunath meaning “Self-existent one”. Swaymbhunath is also a monastery and a museum where we will spend some time before driving to Boudhanath. Built-in the 14th Century, Boudhanath is a stupa located in the center of Kathmandu with colorful flags surrounding it. In ancient times, people used to make offerings and worshipped Boudhanath before traveling to Tibet for business. We will also organize an opportunity for you to talk with the local monk about Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy. we will also visit local monasteries and joined monks for the prayer. You can see a lot of Hindu temples and Buddhist Stupas in Patan, an ancient palace courtyard. Newars, the ethnic community who have been living in Kathmandu from ancient times has a mix of caste following Buddhism and Hinduism which depicts the religious harmony in Nepal. A young girl from the Buddhist community is also chosen as a vessel for Hindu Goddess Taleju who is worshipped as a living goddess in Kathmandu Valley. We will visit and pray to the living goddess as well during this quest.

We will catch the earliest flight to Bhairawa and then drive for an hour to reach Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautama Buddha. Crown Prince Siddhartha Gautama was a kind and curious person from early childhood His father tried to bind him by the worldly attachments and luxury inside the palace but he left the palace in search of knowledge and the true meaning of life to end the suffering of a human. After years of searching, he finally got enlightened, and then people began to call him Gautama Buddha. We will take a day to visit inside the Lumbini and also will join in the prayers in the monasteries. Lumbini Garden, Maya Devi temple, Pukarni pond, Ashika Pillars, etc will be our main sites of visit.

Today after breakfast, we will drive to Tilarakot which is 10 Km north of Lumbini. Gautama Buddha spent his 29 years as a prince in Tilarakot where you can see the remains of his house and garden. The beautiful archeological site, Tilarakot is one of the very important historical sites. Devdaha was the maternal home of Gautama Buddha and young Gautama Buddha was very fond of the place spending a lot of his childhood and youth there. The religious and historical sites have Pakari Brikshya, a beautiful park with 7 meters Buddha’s statue, Gold statue of Sariputra (the first and top disciples of Gautama Buddha), and Bodhi Brikshya as religious attractions.

After our breakfast, we will drive back to Bhairawa airport and fly back to Kathmandu. From Kathmandu airport, we will drive for 2 hours to reach another important religious site, Namobuddha where we will be staying in a monastery learning about Buddhism and joining the monks on their meditation, chants, and prayers.

According to legend, in ancient times there was a young prince wandering around a forest where he saw a starved lioness with her cubs. Due to starvation, the lioness didn’t have any milk for her cubs, and touched by it, the young prince offered his life to the lioness saving the cubs and the lioness with his blood and flesh. The remain of the young prince was buried where the monastery stands now and Gautama Buddha while visiting the place announced that he was a reincarnation of the same young prince. After praying and spending the afternoon in the monastery we will drive back to Kathmandu.

In the evening we will have a farewell dinner to celebrate the wonderful time we had in Nepal.

Today is your last day in Nepal. Carrying all the beautiful memories of the trip, we will head towards the Tribhuvan International Airport 3 hours prior to our scheduled flight time.