Discovery: Buddha’s Birth Earlier Than Thought | National Geographic

the maya devi temple is one of the most
sacred temples within the Buddhist world
once you actually go through the
doorways you get this walkway around the
edge of the temple because right in
front of you in the middle of the temple
actually is an archaeological site very
seldom does archaeology get the
opportunity of interfacing with the very
beginnings of one of the world’s great
religions there are two major
significant findings from these
excavations the first is the world’s
earliest Buddhist structure and it’s not
built in brick it’s not built in stone
it’s actually built in timber so it’s
really exciting because it gives us for
the first time an understanding of what
did an early Buddhist structure look
like the second really significant point
is there is a debate as to when the
Buddha actually lived when he was born
and when he died – some have him born in
the 6th century 7th century some have
him born as as early as 300 BC from that
very early timber structure we have
burnt charcoal from within the postholes
and the date for that earlier structure
is the 6th century BC and those have
actually for the first time given us a
kalindra chol date with which we can now
begin to understand the lifetime of the
Buddha himself
haha