READER BOARDS OF KAPILVASTU - THE PLACE WHERE SIDDARTHA, WHO BECAME THE BUDDHA, GREW UP. THE FIRST FEW READER BOARDS ARE ABOUT THE MONESTARY COMPLEX NEAR THE CHILDHOOD HOME. THE NEXT ONE IS BROKEN INTO TWO PARTS. THEY RELATE TO THE CHILDHOOD HOME.

It wasn't until I got back to the states and started reading some things about the places I had been to, when I found out that there are two Kapilvastu's. One is in Nepal, and the other is in India. Why should India be left out of all the tourist dollars that there is to be made from unsuspecting tourists from other countries coming to the region every year thinking they are seeing an authentic historical landmark? It doesn't matter. Whether is it a real historical landmark isn't relevant. The fact that the drivers and the guides made their daily wage is. I don't mind that at all. They work hard for what little money they get. The fault would lie in the corrupt movers and shakers of the country whose scemes ands traps we all fall into when we go there. The drivers and guides have a hard job to do, which is often not always rewarding. I appreciated all their service and I put no fault on them at all.

I have read in almost every guide book on traveling to India that English is widely spoken everywhere you go in India, no problem! Well, English is spoken pretty good in Dehli. Once you get out in the boon docks of India, these people think that they are speaking English. I would beg to differ. When I got to the Kapilvastu in India I was met by a guide who I couldn't understand. He would go on and on about stuff, but I could make no sense of any of it. Every once in awhile he would say something like; 'monastery', 'Buddha',or 'American dollar' that I could understand. Other then that I understood nothing. To this day I don't know what he said about anything. Fortunately I took pictures of the reader boards infront of these landmarks. Now I can read them and see what this place was, or at least what it said.

I guess somebody who was an archeologist found a stupa that had an urn that held ashes, and there was something that said 'Kapilvastu' on it. After that it was established that this was the childhood home of Siddartha, the Buddha. Meanwhile the people of Nepal found a place not too far from Lumbini where they claim is the childhood home of Buddha. It even has an eastern gate. The eastern gate is the place where Siddartha left when he went to become a homeless sadu. The Kapilvastu in India doesn't have an eastern gate. I remember when the driver and I went to the childhood home I was looking around the place that I assumed was the house. It was nothing more then the foundation of the house which was in complete ruins. I asked the driver, (there was no guide there) which way was east. He had no idea what I was asking. I spent quite a bit of effort using hand jestures waving my arms in the air pointing in each direction. He didn't understand. So, I took alot of pictures of the ruined house hoping that I would evenually find out the story about it and where the eastern gate is.