His international legend continues to grow. He has been featured in National Geographic and on the Discovery Channel. He meditates in the solitude of the jungle most of the time, but when he reappears his followers have made some very unique claims.

They say that his body is impervious to snake bites, and that he does not need food and water for long periods of time. Others claim that they have seen his clothes suddenly burst into a blaze of flames.

Still, the story of the teenager Ram Bahadur Bamjan nicknamed the "Buddha Boy" has gained much of its popularity in Nepal because it closely resembles the Buddhist legend about Gautama Buddha's enlightenment.

Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born a prince in Lumbini, a town in Nepal's rice-growing plains about 350 km southwest of Kathmandu more than 2,600 years ago. Buddhists strongly believe in reincarnation, the doctrine that every soul reappears after death in another bodily form.

Still, Buddhist priests have been divided on whether this boy is truly the reincarnation of Siddhartha Gautama, who was born in southwestern Nepal around 500 B.C. and later became revered as the Buddha, which means Enlightened One.

Indeed, there has been considerable controversy in Nepal in calling Ram Bamjan the "reincarnation of Buddha" since according to Buddhist scripture, Gautama Buddha taught that after nirvana there is no more rebirth, therefore it is impossible to be a "reincarnation of Buddha. However, it is still possible to be another Buddha, another one who has attained enlightenment. It is this path that the Buddha Boy of Nepal has said that believes he is on.

After claims that the Buddha Boy was observed meditating under a tree for more than six months without food and water, the Discovery Channel came to Nepal to investigate the claim, two years ago. The Discovery Channel was able to film Ram meditating for 96 straight hours, day and night during which time he did not drink any fluids or eat any food.

That Discovery Channel project would subsequently produce a documentary called the "The Boy With Divine Powers". According to scientists in the documentary, an average person would be expected to die from kidney failure after four days without drinking any fluids. However, the Buddha Boy showed no signs of physical deterioration caused by dehydration after the 96 hours of filming.

During the last few years, the Buddha Boy of Nepal has experienced an increasingly devoted following but his legend has created many skeptics as well. Once of his skeptics, Sanal Edamaruku, President of the Indian Rationalist Association (IRA) doesn't see much of the Buddha in this boy.

Sanal thinks that, "This is a typical case of fraud. The boy must be simply eating and drinking at night. The claim that he was fasting for six months cannot be taken seriously, unless a fraud-proof blood test confirms that there is no glucose in his blood".

In fact, other skeptics have also raised questions about the Buddah Boy of Nepal. Rumors exist that the Buddha Boy's parents are in the process of building themselves a mansion. Some insist that the Maoist rebels, in on the hoax, were raking in tens of thousands of dollars in donations from the boys devoted public followers.

So, as the strange tale of the Buddha Boy of Nepal continues to grow, skeptics abound, and as questions are raised, enlightenment is slow.

http://www.eworldvu.com