"Ram Bahadur Bomjon "Buddha Boy" is a 15-year old Nepalese boy who was hailed by many to be Buddha incarnate - 11 months without any food, without any drop of water - just silently meditating in a tree-hole (like the Gautama Buddha). Mysteriously he vanished one day - as of March 2007 he is known, however, to be safely meditating in a pit in Ratanpuri village.
Discovery Channel had a feature on him in their show "The Boy With Divine Powers". Conclusion? It might not really be such a great hoax as everyone might have thought.
Some time ago, the Discovery crew had arrived at the village of "Buddha Boy" - and they had found it to be now a huge secondary industry area as devotees arrive and buy and sell merchandise related to "Buddha Boy". Just a year ago, this had been but a simple farming village with little contact to the outside world. "Buddha Boy"-commercialized so it seems - and immediately the narrator indirectly seems to suggest a hoax in the making as hundreds of jobs are created and giant profits reaped.
The crew moves on to the center of attraction - the site of "Buddha Boy"'s meditation. Surrounded by fences, "Buddha Boy" (BB) sits there serenely in the tree-hole, as 50m away barbed wire and guards isolate him from the touch of the world. The security system is elaborate and tight - heading the "safety committee" responsible for BB's welfare and security is BB's brother, who the camera crew attempts to seek permission from in order to film BB to investigate the issue.
The brother is the only key-holder to the fortress he has erected around BB. Fences? Discovery starts to question the purpose of such "precautions".
Coincidence? BB's mother is named Maya Devi. Rings a bell? The mother of the historical Buddha Gautama Siddharta, goes by the same name.
The brother initially declines, but quickly allows the crew to film the BB - but the closest they may get is 25m away from the boy. The crew agrees, and a camera is left there to face BB for the next dozens of hours.
Hours pass. BB is just as composed as he was initially, with no heed to the outside world ogling at him. No intruders - no visible means of food/water being passed to him, nothing to suggest any foul play at all."
1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FBe3CQVPV4
2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKbtl574REE
3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs9Q88NZ70U
4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X0gums7Vz4
5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXu8meC1BhI
