{"id":5261,"date":"2011-08-01T16:42:41","date_gmt":"2011-08-01T20:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=5261"},"modified":"2011-08-02T16:31:05","modified_gmt":"2011-08-02T20:31:05","slug":"nepal-rejects-3-billion-chinese-bid-to-turn-buddhas-birthplace-into-tourist-mecca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/nepal-rejects-3-billion-chinese-bid-to-turn-buddhas-birthplace-into-tourist-mecca","title":{"rendered":"Nepal rejects $3 billion Chinese bid to turn Buddha&#8217;s birthplace into tourist mecca"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The government of Nepal has rejected a $3 billion offer from a Hong Kong foundation to turn Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, into a tourist mecca.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Buddhist Channel website:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Less than a fortnight after a Chinese nongovernmental organisation announced its plan for what amounted to a virtual takeover of Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha in Nepal, Nepal&#8217;s government on Thursday unceremoniously rejected it, saying it would not entertain any deal struck in a third country without the participation of the actual stakeholders.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Nepal is the actual stakeholder,&#8221; said Modraj Dottel, spokesperson of Nepal&#8217;s culture ministry that governs Lumbini in southern Nepal\u00a0&#8212; the destination of thousands of pilgrims and Buddhist scholars worldwide, and a Unesco-declared World Heritage Site. &#8220;How can we own a deal struck in a third country without the formal consent of the actual stakeholder?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to the Buddhist Channel:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The unambiguous official rejection came after reports in the Chinese media earlier this month that a Hong Kong based NGO, the Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation, had signed a memorandum of understanding with the UN Industrial Development Organisation for a $3 billion project to develop Lumbini into a &#8220;Buddhist Mecca&#8221;, complete with hotels, an international airport and other tourism-related infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.buddhistchannel.tv\/index.php?id=39,10359,0,0,1,0\" target=\"_blank\">CLICK HERE to read more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government of Nepal has rejected a $3 billion offer from a Hong Kong foundation to turn Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, into a tourist mecca. According to the Buddhist Channel website: Less than a fortnight after a Chinese nongovernmental organisation announced its plan for what amounted to a virtual takeover of Lumbini, the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[972],"tags":[1293,1294,1049],"class_list":["post-5261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhist","tag-bhuddist-channel","tag-birthplace-of-the-buddha","tag-nepal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Nepal rejects $3 billion Chinese bid to turn Buddha&#039;s birthplace into tourist mecca<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/nepal-rejects-3-billion-chinese-bid-to-turn-buddhas-birthplace-into-tourist-mecca\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nepal rejects $3 billion Chinese bid to turn Buddha&#039;s birthplace into tourist mecca\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The government of Nepal has rejected a $3 billion offer from a Hong Kong foundation to turn Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, into a tourist mecca. According to the Buddhist Channel website: Less than a fortnight after a Chinese nongovernmental organisation announced its plan for what amounted to a virtual takeover of Lumbini, the&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/nepal-rejects-3-billion-chinese-bid-to-turn-buddhas-birthplace-into-tourist-mecca\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-01T20:42:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-02T20:31:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nepal rejects $3 billion Chinese bid to turn Buddha's birthplace into tourist mecca","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/nepal-rejects-3-billion-chinese-bid-to-turn-buddhas-birthplace-into-tourist-mecca","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nepal rejects $3 billion Chinese bid to turn Buddha's birthplace into tourist mecca","og_description":"The government of Nepal has rejected a $3 billion offer from a Hong Kong foundation to turn Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, into a tourist mecca. 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