Abstract: Archaeology in Nepal, the Land of the Buddha Lecturer:
Nancy Wilkie To this day, most archaeology in Nepal has been
limited to the preservation and conservation of the standing
monuments of the Kathmandu Valley, where the rulers of Nepal had
their capital during the Medieval period. These monuments
generally are wooden and stone temples, both Hindu and Buddhist,
that belong to the 16thcentury A.D. and later. Along the
southern border of Nepal, however, in the area called the Nepal
Terai, which forms part of the Gangetic plain, there has been a
long tradition of archaeological research. From the late
19thcentury to this day, archaeological investigations in this
region have focused on sites connected with the Buddha, who was
born at Lumbini and whose ancestral home was at Kapilavastu.
Excavations in the Sacred Garden at Lumbini have revealed
structures dating as early as the 3rdcentury B.C., when the
Emperor Ashoka visited the area in the course of his pilgrimage
to sites associated with the Lord Bud