Pilgrims flock to see 'Buddha boy' said to have fasted six months

"Thousands of pilgrims are pouring into the dense jungle of southern Nepal to worship a 15-year-old boy who has been hailed as a new Buddha.

Devotees claim that Ram Bomjon, who is silently meditating beneath a tree, has not eaten or drunk anything since he sat down at his chosen spot six months ago."

Read the rest here.... Telegraph
I think that kids pretty hardcore and i like how he says...

"Tell the people not to call me a Buddha."

It be hilarous if he gets up and walk out of there tomorrow and goes though 100 miles of jungle and into a walmart, then looks to buys a XBOX360 and says I have waited 6 months to buy this? what do you mean sold out?

[edit on 21-11-2005 by trIckz_R_fO_kIdz]

MOD EDIT: Fixing a long link.

[edit on 11/22/2005 by cmdrkeenkid]

Sounds pretty fishy to me. He hasn't eaten but they also pull a curtain in front of him....so he can eat a pizza or whatever it is they eat there? There is such poverty there that this sounds like a scam to make whatever money they can make off of this.

Is he real? I doubt it but, then, only time will tell. If they are still "worshipping" him a few thousand years later, I might come to think of him as a devout Buddhist.

This says enough:

A fence was built around Ram's tree to prevent pilgrims prodding him, then a second, and now a third is planned, as well as a bus park, leaving Ram at the centre of an ever growing circle of rubbish.

This doesn't surprise me. There are many stories out of India of yogis from ancient to present days who can fast for many days. Why are you people so skeptical. If Jesus could have fasted for 40 days and 40 nights why can it not be possible that this boy can accomplish the same.

This article is from 2004 but it's related:
Mystic's fast baffles doctors

Originally posted by worldwatcher
This doesn't surprise me. There are many stories out of India of yogis from ancient to present days who can fast for many days. Why are you people so skeptical. If Jesus could have fasted for 40 days and 40 nights why can it not be possible that this boy can accomplish the same.

This article is from 2004 but it's related:
Mystic's fast baffles doctors

For me, it's not that I doubt his ability to fast, it's the large publicity it's getting, and the curious ways that they seem to be trying to emulate the story of the Buddha's awakening. He also claims in that story to not be a Buddha, but a lower deity.

WW,

The reason why I'm skeptical is that he's been doing this for 6 months, without eating, drinking or even moving. It may be possible, but I find it highly improbably. According to the article, Buddha himself sat under the pipal tree for 49 days.

Heh...funny. People have so much to learn from this, and yet they just "flock" to see him, for personal monetary gain or other ego driven reasons. Maybe everyone should try a bit more meditating...

I guess people flock to him because they want to "see for themselves" just like we would want to before believing if it's true or not. But I still don't doubt it, Indian culture has so many stories of yogis who can achieve amazing feats due to their beliefs and mastery of their bodies. It is faith and since fasting is one of the oldest and most natural of rituals, I don't see it as being impossible. I think the fact he that is so young is what the people find to be so special, because yogis take many years to achieve their abilities.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
This doesn't surprise me. There are many stories out of India of yogis from ancient to present days who can fast for many days. Why are you people so skeptical. If Jesus could have fasted for 40 days and 40 nights why can it not be possible that this boy can accomplish the same.

I think people in the bible that did these amazing month + peroids of fasting did infact eat food during that time. They just could not eat any processed foods of any kind like bread etc..

For example
Deuteronomy chapter 9

9 When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:

Notice he didnt say I didnt eat anything he only said I didnt eat bread

I think in some cases they were allowed to eat things like locusts, and wild honey like John the Baptist did.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
If Jesus could have fasted for 40 days and 40 nights why
can it not be possible that this boy can accomplish the same.

There are MANY Catholic saints who survived on nothing but the
Eucharist for many years, sometimes decades.

The Eucharist is just a little wafer of breadlike substance the size of
a nickle. They would have received this little nickle sized piece of
bread once a day .... sometimes not even that often.

Absolutely he could be for real. The problem, as is often the case,
is the people around him. Most people in the world are hungry for
the spiritual, even though they don't realize it. When something
wonderful happens near them, they flock to it like bees to honey.

I believe it could be true. I don't know if it really is ... but I
believe it COULD be.

And now that there are independant people to observe him, he will eat or drink supplements before long.

why can it not be possible that this boy can accomplish the same

Biology.

from teh article
Photographs of Ram Bomjon, available for five rupees (4p) from his makeshift shrine, have become ubiquitous across the region.

....

After five days it was opened and he spoke. "Tell the people not to call me a Buddha. I don't have the Buddha's energy. I am at the level of rinpoche [lesser divinity].

Not much of a statement of humility then. I'm just a minor god, not a major one.

A thriving market has grown in the once pristine forest, supplying pilgrims with everything from chewing tobacco and bicycle repairs to incense and sacred amulets.

Its intersting to note that these sorts of things are what happens where there is, for example, an apparition of the virgin mary in old europe, or she'll even tell the visionaries to build a shrine, and this revives the local economy and provides jobs for the people.

"Some people are selling 2,500 rupees [£20] worth of tea a day.

"These lamas [monks] are going to build mansions out of this. If I wasn't a bit embarrassed I'd take a van down there and set up a stall."

Considering that the dali lama recently said that 'communist occupation's okay, sincethe people have more stuff', I guess these other lamas are following suit.

[edit on 22-11-2005 by Nygdan]

Has there been an update on this story?