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''Buddha Boy'' begins 3-year meditation in bunker
AFP
Tuesday, March 27, 2007 12:49:54 PM Oman Time
A file photo of ''Buddha Boy''.
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KATHMANDU -- A Nepali teenager dubbed the "Buddha Boy" has begun
meditating for three years in an underground bunker and will neither sleep, eat
nor drink any water during that time, supporters claimed Tuesday.
Ram Bahadur Bomjan, 17, who supporters insist is the reincarnation of the
Buddha, shot to fame in May 2005 amid reports he did not need food, water or
sleep while meditating.
He has, however, been spotted nibbling on fruit and catching a nap.
"We've constructed an underground room with a tiled roof as requested by
Bomjan," said Raju Shah, a member of a village committee set up to support the
activities of the young man.
Shah said Bomjam began meditating in the bunker on Monday.
"He has not eaten, slept or taken any water and he plans to continue
meditating without food or water for three years there," Shah claimed.
The cement-walled bunker is seven feet (2.1 metres) deep and is located
in the jungle 60 kilometers (40 miles) southeast of Kathmandu, Shah told AFP.
Tens of thousands of people came to visit the teenager at his first
meditation site under a pipal tree in the same area. He vanished from the site
in March 2006 after meditating for 10 months.
"This time he does not want visitors -- not even his family," said Shah.
Local authorities, however, have poured cold water on the fasting claims
and said the boy was being used by supporters to fleece funds from villagers.
They froze the committee's bank account containing 8,000 dollars -- a small
fortune in impoverished Nepal.
Bomjam returned to the same area to meditate in December 2006, but
disappeared again earlier this month.
"While he was wandering round the jungle, he met a villager and asked him
to construct an underground room. We began doing it immediately and he has
started to meditate there," Shah told AFP.
Gautama Siddhartha, who later became known as Buddha or the Enlightened
One, is believed to have been born in southern Nepal around 500 BC.
Buddhists believe Siddhartha achieved enlightenment after meditating
under a pipal tree.
The media here has reported that Bomjan had told a friend that he is not
a reincarnation of Buddha, but merely an "austere sage."
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