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eKatnipur.com is reporting that a girl in far western Nepal emits ‘glass pieces’ from forhead. A team of doctors are researching on 12-year-old girl, who has been excreting glass pieces from the side of her forehead for the last three years.

“The CT scan report indicates that she has some kind of problem in her forehead skin,” said Dr M Kiduwai who is involved in the research, “The pieces do not seem to be coming out from the bone. But we can give more details only after further investigation.”

Here are some other mysterious phenomena reported by media:

Lekhnath School girls continue to suffer from “mass hysteria” - The students shouted, cried and fell unconscious in fear uttering that they saw an enormous snake that was about to pounce on them, according to the teachers.

World’s shortest boy - 14 years old and 20-inch tall Nepali boy. He’s probably the shortest boy in the world, but to qualify for the Guinness World Records he’ll have to wait for 4 more years until he reaches 18.

Bizarre baby born in Dolakha (WARNING! you might find the images disturbing) - A neck-less baby was born with extraordinarily large eyeballs. Died within half an hour.

The Buddha Boy of Nepal - Ram Bahadur Bomjon, who meditated under a pipal tree for 10-months before he went missing on March 2006. He’s said he’ll be back after 6 years.

A newly published book, "The Great Sons of the Tharus: Sakyamuni Buddha and Emperor Asoka", written by Subodh Kumar Singh claims that Buddha did not come from a royal family but a "Tharu" community that today is at the bottom of the social hierarchy in Nepal, living as bonded labourers.

Singh, himself is a Tharu and says ‘The word Tharu comes from Sthabir in Sanskrit, meaning monk or the Buddha. The Tharus are therefore the Buddha’s people.’

In his book, Singh claims that when Buddha came back to his kingdom after attaining enlightenment so many people joined him as followers. But he selected only a few of them and told others to be Buddhists after being indoctrinated by these chosen leaders. These people who became Buddhists were called Stharu, which ‘perverted’ into Tharu, in due course of time. Singh says, Tharus are originally Kshetriyas.

Looks like Discovery Channel is going to put a stop to our curiosity on whether the Buddha Boy was eating or not during his meditation. They’ll be airing My Shocking Story: The Boy With Divine Powers on Thursday 29 June, 10pm. But this is only for viewers in UK at this moment. If there are any readers from UK interested in Buddha Boy please leave a comment after watching the story.

For the first time ever, cameras have been allowed beyond the 50 metre fence that guards Ram. Filming him 24/7, we will be able to see if he leaves the tree or is somehow getting food and water. Doctors will also view the footage and give their views on what is happening to his body and how he might be enduring what is deemed physically impossible.

Thanks to Wayne for the link.

Update: You can watch the full documentary in Dailymotion

June issue of GQ will have a feature story THE INCREDIBLE BUDDHA BOY by George Saunders (the author of In Persuasion Nation). First portion of the story is available online which describes Saunder’s journey to Nepal. It should be very interesting to read the first hand experience of an author who went in search of a miracle. You’ll have to get the June edition of GQ for the full article.

GQ.com’s Ben Phelan, George Saunders and photographer Jeff Riedel were in Nepal to see the meditating boy before his disappearance and to capture him on film. Here is their interview.

Is the Buddha Boy a hoax?

RIEDEL: My first thought was, This kid’s made of wax, like a Madame Tussauds wax figure. And then I thought, Wait a minute, how could they do that?

SAUNDERS: These people couldn’t pull that off. And in a way it wouldn’t even come into their radar. I’m a pretty sarcastic person, and it was interesting to see how that simplicity of life, or poverty, or whatever you want to call it, also has a component of real sweetness and earnestness that was almost unimaginable to me until I saw it—this real gentle surface-level earnestness. I don’t know if you felt that, Jeff, but they were so guileless, the people we met, which made them believe in this boy more, because the level of deception you’d have to practice to pull off this hoax would even be a lot for us, in upstate New York.

You get the feeling there that if someone did something dishonorable, there’s nowhere for them to disappear to. The people in the communities know everything about each other. That’s why I thought, “In this Village Committee, you think about them trying to pull a hoax. If there’s even one person in the community that was onto it and skeptical, or felt dissed or pissed off about it or something, that’s all it would take to blow this thing up.” But you know, we’re out there five days, six days, whatever. Nobody pulled us aside to say, “Hey, you know…” And now he’s gone. Wherever he is, they can’t find him, which convinces me even more—he just got up and went deeper, to someplace where nobody can find him. And now he’s presumably happy, I guess.

American war correspondent Kevin Sites is currently reporting from Nepal writing about his personal encounter with maoist rebels. Traveling with him as a translator is Nepalese blogger and journalist Dinesh Wagle of UWB who has written about Kevin in his blog article Backpack Journalist Kevin Sites in Kathmandu.

In his Hot Zone, Kevin Sites have videos, photos and interviews with Maoist rebels of Nepal.

This is truly a historic moment for Nepal and Nepalese people. The proposal that was unanimously passed by The House of Representatives today brings army under the parliament, King will have to pay tax and Nepal becomes a Secular Country. This is a great occasion to celebrate but we always need to remember that the main problem is still there to be solved. MAOISTS! This is a step towards right direction and I hope the leaders will continue to work as per peoples aspirations. If they don’t perform, people will surely punish them. They didn’t spare a King so, why would they leave corrupt leaders?
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This bas relief depicts Maya Devi with her right hand holding on to a sal tree with a newborn child standing upright on a lotus petal, shedding an oval halo, around his head.

During my recent visit to Po Lin Monastry I found some conflicting information about Buddha’s birth place. I saw some paintings with information saying Buddha was born in Nepal and some other info saying he was born in India. It might not matter to most, but those who are serious about history and Buddhism itself should know the facts. I’ve known many serious Buddhists who really thought that Buddha was born in India until they met me. I had to point them to reliable sources to get the facts across. The truth is that; Buddha was born in Kapilbastu, Lumbini, Nepal.
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Mahesh Poudyal, a Nepalese blogger has written a post with very detail analysis on whether Monarchy is worth keeping in Nepal. He analyzes economic, political, and cultural aspect looking at the pros and cons of keeping monarchy in Nepal. The post is very long but it definitely is a worthwhile read.
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Freedom is not a privilege it’s a basic human right and if any individual or group denies you of this right, then you have to ask for it. If you don’t get it back simply by asking for it, you’ve to fight for it. Nepali people asked for it politely which was ignored but just got their freedom back by fighting for it!

Now the sovereignty goes back to people. People power today showed that nobody can ignore it. When the silent majority comes out saying enough is enough. Autocratic regimes fall and dictators kneel down. This is exactly what happened today in Nepal. The people of Nepal have made their voices heard and forced the king to give the power back to them

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King Gyanendra finally did what he should have done a long time ago. With the latest royal proclamation he’s reinstated the parliament which was dissolved in 2002. I think everybody; the king, political parties, maoists and royalists have learned enough lessons from the history and should be back to build the nation. This is the first right step the King has taken after misfiring so many times.

Full Text of royal proclamation from eKantipur.com:

(24 April 2006)

Beloved Countrymen,

Convinced that the source of State Authority and Sovereignty of the Kingdom of Nepal is inherent in the people of Nepal and cognizant of the spirit of the ongoing people’s movement as well as to resolve the on-going violent conflict and other problems facing the country according to the road map of the agitating Seven Party Alliance, we, through this Proclamation, reinstate the House of Representatives which was dissolved on 22 May 2002 on the advice of the then Prime Minister in accordance with the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal-1990. We call upon the Seven Party Alliance to bear the responsibility of taking the nation on the path to national unity and prosperity, while ensuring permanent peace and safeguarding multiparty democracy. We also summon the session of the reinstated House of Representatives at the Sansad Bhawan, Singha Durbar at 1 P.M. on Friday, 28 April 2006.

We are confident that this House will contribute to the overall welfare of Nepal and the Nepalese people.

We extend our heartfelt condolences to all those who have lost their lives in the people’s movement and wish the injured speedy recovery. We are confident that the nation will forge ahead towards sustainable peace, progress, full-fledged democracy and national unity.

May Lord Pashupatinath bless us all!

Jaya Nepal!