Archaeologists digging at Buddha's birthplace have uncovered remains of the "earliest ever Buddhist shrine".

They unearthed a 6th Century BC timber structure buried within the Maya Devi Temple at Lumbini in Nepal. The shrine appears to have housed a tree. This links to the Buddha nativity story - his mother gave birth to him while holding on to a tree branch. Its discovery may settle the dispute over the birth date of the Buddha, report [Coningham et al] in the Journal of Antiquity.

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25088960

 

Key locations identified with the lives of important religious founders have often been extensively remodelled in later periods, entraining the destruction of many of the earlier remains. Recent UNESCO-sponsored work at the major Buddhist centre of Lumbini in Nepal has sought to overcome these limitations, providing direct archaeological evidence of the nature of an early Buddhist shrine and a secure chronology. The excavations revealed a sequence of early structures preceding the major rebuilding by Asoka during the third century BC. The sequence of durable brick architecture supplanting non-durable timber was foreseen by British prehistorian Stuart Piggott when he was stationed in India over 70 years ago. Lumbini provides a rare and valuable insight into the structure and character of the earliest Buddhist shrines.

 

http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/087/ant0871104.htm

I just realized that I don't know any more about Nepal than its name and that it is proximal to China.

That Buddhists might drag their feet about building a giant temple complex doesn't seem that strange. Mindfulness and causality.

Maybe they will restore the area of the first shrine, no shrine, plant a tree.