Lumbinī ［藍毘尼］ (, Pali;  Rambini): The birthplace of Shakyamuni. Buddhist scriptures often refer to it as Lumbinī Gardens. It was a grove in what is today the village of Rummindei just inside the southern border of Nepal. Lumbinī is one of the four sacred sites connected with Shakyamuni, the other three being Buddhagayā (the place of his enlightenment), Deer Park (the place of his first sermon), and Kushinagara (the site of his death, or entry into nirvana). The remains of Lumbinī were discovered at Rummindei in 1896, and inscriptions on the stone pillar found there show that King Ashoka made a pilgrimage to Lumbinī and erected the pillar to commemorate Shakyamuni Buddha’s birthplace. Hsüan-tsang, a Chinese priest who visited the site of Lumbinī in the seventh century, said in his travel records that lightning had broken the pillar, and only the lower half remained. According to Buddhist legend, Māyā gave birth to Shakyamuni here when she reached for a branch of an ashoka tree to obtain its blossoms.