Short answers, pulled from the story.
Maya Devi gave birth to Siddhartha Gautama in Lumbini according to the sacred texts of the Buddhist Commentaries. This event marks the beginning of a tradition that would eventually shape billions of lives across Asia and beyond.
Former Commander-In-Chief of the Nepalese Army General Khadga Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana and Alois Anton Führer discovered a great stone pillar at Rupandehi in 1896. Their find relied on crucial historical records made by the ancient Chinese monk-pilgrim Xuanzang in the 7th century CE.
The Brahmi inscription on the pillar gives evidence that Ashoka, emperor of the Maurya Empire, visited the place in 3rd-century BCE. It identified it as the birth-place of the Buddha.
Radiocarbon dating of charcoal from the wooden postholes and optically stimulated luminescence dating of elements in the soil suggests human activity began at Lumbini around 1000 BCE. New excavations in the Mayadevi temple in Lumbini in 2013 revealed a series of the most ancient Buddhist shrines in South Asia.
Lumbini was granted World Heritage status by UNESCO in 1997. This designation brought international attention to preservation efforts across the sacred complex.
The holy site of Lumbini is bordered by a large monastic zone where only monasteries can be built. It separates into an eastern and western monastic zone with Theravadin monasteries on one side and Mahayana and Vajrayana monasteries on the other.