Where did the Buddha really grow up?

GrecoBuddha (blog.nationmultimedia.com)

Let’s assume Buddha was a historical person. So where was he born? Legend has it that he was born in a park at Lumbini, near a town called Kapilavastu (the capital of his father's "kingdom"). And where is Kapilavastu?

The location of ancient Kapilavastu is still not unanimously accepted: Generally, Indian guidebooks consider Piprahwa to be the real Kapilavastu, while Nepalese guidebooks consider Tilaurakot to be the real Kapilavastu.

According to Heather Hindman ("Touring Lumbini: On Buddhist Centers and National Margins,” University of Chicago), “The location of the sage's birth lies in the ancient land ruled by the father of Siddhartha, which probably crosses the current border of Nepal and India. Yet, in the present era in which a major tourist site can dramatically alter the economy of a small country like Nepal, the two nations find it vital to fix the location of the birth on one side of the border or the other."

But there is compelling evidence to show that Lumbini is an astonishing fraud, begun in 1896, and unwittingly fostered ever since. The man responsible was Dr. Alois Anton Führer, a German archaeologist employed by the (British) Government of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh between 1885-98, and co-discoverer of the present Lumbini site. See this website for details: "Lumbini on Trial: The Untold Story" (http://www.lumkap.org.uk/).

• More>> Including responses from Dr. Ranajit Pal, the foremost scholar on this matter