A six-metre polished sandstone column, erected on the orders of Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan Empire in 249 BC after his pilgrimage to Lumbini. It is one of the most important inscriptions in Buddhist archaeology — the inscription confirms that this is the Buddha's birthplace and that Ashoka knew the site as such.
The pillar stands a few metres west of the Mayadevi Temple inside the Sacred Garden. The lion-shaped capital that once topped it has been lost; the surviving shaft was rediscovered by archaeologists in 1896. Pilgrims tie prayer flags to the metal fence around it. Read the inscription panel before approaching — the Brahmi script itself is invisible to the untrained eye but the translation gives the pillar its meaning.