www.pugatajetwanvihar.org.np

ABOUT US

Lord Buddha's birth place Lumbini of Nepal has been quite renowned pilgrimage to the Buddhists of the world. The place however has very inadequate facilities like monastery, library and religious information centre for the use of millions of devotees and visitors. The historical sites namely Lumbini, the birth place of Lord Buddha; Tilaurakot, the playground of Lord Buddha in his childhood; Devadaha, the maternal place, of Lord Buddha; Ramgram, where the remains of Lord Buddha were immersed are all scattered within a periphery of only 40 Km. Unfortunately, there is not a single monastery within the reach of these places causing big inconvenience to the devotees and visitors. Taking this into consideration, Mrs. Ganesh Kumari Tamrakar has donated land to construct a monastery at Siddharthanagar in order to promote Lord Buddha's preaching towards the peaceful living of the mankind.

Late Mr. Purna Bahadur Tamrakar, the husband of the land donor for this monastery was born at Taksar, Khikamaha, Bhojpur and held great respect and faith in the Buddhist religion. He was a son of late Mr. Dev Narayan & Mrs. Mankumari Tamrakar and was born on 1923 A.D. Likewise Mrs. Ganesh Kumari Tamrakar was born on 1925 A.D. at Taksar, Khikamaha, Takchhe Tole, Bhojpur to late, Mr. Ashakaji Tuladhar & Mrs. Prem Maya Tuladhar as their eldest daughter. Late Mr. Purna Bahadur Tamrakar was a work devoted, self reliant and adventurous personality. Such great qualities were inherited from his father Late Dev Narayan Tamrakar. Late Mr. Purna Bahadur Tamrakar made fair contribution for the sake of the religious work from his earnings. He was a great relief to the helpless people. His farsightedness and business acumen through hard work and love for others helped to succeed in many creative and genius work.

His wife, Mrs. Ganesh Kumari also discharged her duties as worthy daughter to parents, as diligent housewife, a loving mother besides meeting the social obligations. All through her days she is peace loving, hard working, religious and hospitable woman who lived to make her life meaningful. She set an example before others by her kind cultured behaviors so that one could learn how small things also matter in our life. On her visits to Lumbini she always felt the necessity of a Monastery at Siddharthanagar for the convenience of visitors and encouraged her children to work for her dream to come true. The charity began at home. She donated her family earnings to some extent and her personal valuable ornament and jewelry to encourage others for the construction of a monastery. Ultimately she donated 1.6 acre (1 bigha 1 katha and 9 dhur ) of land at Siddharthanagar municipality ward no. 4 for the construction of a Buddhist monastery. Mrs. Ganesh Kumari Tamrakar is completely dedicated to construct the monastery and donated Rs.100001 (One Lac One Rupees) for the construction of the Shanti Stu pa, a symbol of peace inside the monastery and Rs.100001 (One Lac One Rupees) for the trust fund.

Late Mr. Tamrakar and Mrs. Tamrakar have seven sons and two daughters namely Mr. Ram Krishna, Mr. Dev Krishna, Mr. Anil, Mr. Rabindra, Mr. Nabin, Mr. Prabin, Mr. Arjun and Mrs. Sarita Sthapit & Mrs. Neelam Tuladhar. Their eldest son Mr. Ram Krishna has devoted to Siddharthanagar while his brothers live in Kathmandu. Likewise late Mr.Tamrakar had two elder sisters namely Miss. Harsha Maya Tamrakar and Miss. Sheelshobha Tamrakar. From their early childhood they had devoted themselves to Buddhism and have decided to remain bachelor completely devoted to the family of their brother as well as in social service. The name ''Pugata Bhoomi'' the land for proposed monastery has been named from these philanthropist family names “Pu'' after Purna Bahadur, ''Ga'' after Ganesh Kumari, .'Ta'' after Tamrakars. The monastery to be established in this very land has been named as ''Jetwan Vihar'. In gratitude to the donor of the land and the place where Lord Buddha blessed by spending more than half of his lifetime, the place has been named as ''Pugata Bhoomi Jetwan Vihar” in the great remembrance* This proposed name ''Jetwan Vihar'' has a historical background as described below:

A rich businessman called Anathpindak from a place called Shrawasti had come to see his friend Rajgriha Shresthi in Rajgriha. To his great disappointment Anathpindak found no reception at his place, but his friend was too busy to see him. Curiously, Anathpindak came to know the friend Shresthi was fully occupied in making arrangements of food & shelter for ''Buddha' and his deciples. Having heard the name of Buddha, Anathpindak became very eager to see him spent whole night in an eagerness to visit to Buddha next morning. The next day, in the early morning he met Buddha and became spell bound by the religious discourses given by Buddha. He also arranged food for all at his friend's place the next day. Later, he made a request to Buddha to come to his place in Shrawasti and Stay over there throughout the rainy season. However, Buddha told him that he would prefer a peaceful and lonely place only.

On his return to Shrawasti, Mr. Anathpindak went in search of a desired place for Buddha. A peaceful and suitable garden place owned by Prince was available but the Prince refused to give it away at any cost. The matter went to court of law and the verdict of the justice completed the prince to part with the land against any amount of money, the prince could demand. The Prince asked Anathpindak to cover the entire land of the garden by gold coins as a price of the land. Putting all his fortune at stake he almost covered the land with gold coins but failed to cover a small patch of land. However, when the Prince came to know that the land was for a donation to Buddha, he did not insist to cover the patch and gave Anathpindak free of cost.

Later nearly rupees one hundred twenty million were spent to construct houses and make gardens at Buddha monastery. Then, Anathpindak donated entire monastery to Buddha. Even after spending his fortunes to create the monastery, Anathpindak was very humble to remember the kindness of the Prince and named the monastery after the Prince's name as “JETWAN'' and his spiritual discourses were given by Buddha from this monastery and spent most of the rainy season at this monastery.

The legend of Jetwan has inspired to name the proposed monastery as Jetwan once again.