Nepal's mystery "Buddha boy" goes missing again

KATHMANDU, March 11 (Reuters) A 16-year-old Nepali boy who thousands of people believe is a reincarnation of Buddha has gone missing from the site where he had been meditating for more than two months.

Since first appearing in 2005, Ram Bahadur Bamjon has drawn more than 100,000 people to the dense forests of southeastern Nepal to see him sitting cross-legged beneath a tree.

Bamjon left the site late on Thursday, said a police officer in Jijgadh, 150 km southeast of Kathmandu.

The boy had been meditating there since December, when he reappeared after going missing for nearly 10 months last year.

''He quietly left the site around midnight on Thursday. Earlier that night he had told his attendants that he would move to a new location for meditation,'' policeman Rameshwar Yadav said today.

''We are searching for the boy in the forests but have found no trace of him so far.'' Buddha was born a prince in Lumbini, a dusty village in Nepal's rice-growing plains about 350 km west of Kathmandu more than 2,600 years ago.

He is believed to have attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, which borders Nepal.

REUTERS SB BD1215