On a full-moon day in the month of May (Visakha) 2600 years ago was born a Prince named Siddhattha. His birth took place at a lovely garden called Lumbini Sala grove (modern Rumindei in Nepal), where his mother Mahamaya, the chief queen consort of King Suddhodana of Kapilavatthu, rested with her royal retinue, on her way to her parental home in Devadaha. In the picture Queen Mahamaya stands under a flowering sala tree holding on to one of its branches. This site in Lumbini today is marked by the Asokan pillar with its inscription mentioning that "here the Buddha was born". Lumbini is just a few kilometres inside Nepal from the Indian border. Prince Siddhattha later at the age of 35 became the Buddha.