[Buddha-l] Lumbini developments

[Jo]

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/12/117_100477.html

Looks real! Last time this idea turned up it was the Japanese planning to
build a theme park there. Now the S. Koreans apparently are the perps. I
wonder about the "world peace" notion. Few years ago it was Japanese Shin
Buddhists building glaringly white Peace Pagodas (modeled on the stupa
format) all over the world.  Article doesn't say whose idea this is.
Will they include a golf course, as the military junta in Burma did near
Bagan.

Joanna
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By Anil Giri
KATHMANDU - South Korea has agreed to offer $2 million to develop Lumbini,
the birthplace of Lord Buddha, as a city of peace. 

The proposal, entitled a "Master Plan for the Lumbini World Peace City
Preservation and Development,"has already been accepted by Nepal's Ministry
of Culture, the sole entity to execute the project. The project is now under
consideration by Nepal's Ministry of Finance,

"We have received a South Korean request to build a master plan for Lumbini
as a peace city. The proposal is now under consideration at the Ministry of
Finance," Nepal's Culture Secretary Dinesh Hari Adhikari said. 

Adhikari hoped that an agreement in this respect would be signed soon after
getting approval from the finance ministry. 

According to the South Korean proposal which was submitted to the Nepalese
government by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), South
Korea will pay $2 million to help carry out the plan for the peace city.

KOICA said it will develop the plan, paying keen attention to the
archaeological, environmental and cultural sensitivity of Lumbini. The
Nepalese government has formed a high-level committee under the chairmanship
of UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to develop Lumbini as city of
peace. 

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is also interested in the
project. The team led by Chairman Dahal visited New York in September and
held a meeting with Ban, seeking his support. 

KOICA, in cooperation with the Nepalese government, will begin drawing up
the plan in mid-January 2012 and will complete the work over the next 18
months. 

According to the proposal, the South Korean government will dispatch about
143 experts from various fields to map out the plan. The experts will be
urban designers, architects, local planners, road and traffic engineers,
tourism and cultural analysts, environment and disaster specialists and
financiers.

According to the proposal, the Korean team will conduct research on
cultural, heritage and archaeological aspects in three phases. In the first
phase, the team will visit the site of the proposed city to build a concept
paper of the project. 

They will then look into the environmental aspects, historical and cultural
importance as well as heritage of Lumini to figure out the socio-economic
environment and infrastructure capabilities of the proposed peace city. 

Anil Giri is a contributing writer for The Korea Times.