Buhanga Eco Park is a small forest of about 31 hectares that is referred to as a ritual place where the Kings of Yore in Rwanda could be enthroned and initiated for Kingship. It brings the great beauty of an ecosystem and it’s tiring as travelers get into trails in the forest while walking under the tall majestic trees with crawling and creeping plants, travelers are always ushered in by the sounds of different bird species singing and beautiful colorful butterflies. 

  

Buhanga Eco-park forest makes travelers take different dimensions depending on the season of the year, weather conditions, and the time of the day, but Buhanga is best visited in the early morning hours or in the afternoon which is the time when birds are actively singing in the air that makes your hiking through the forest lovable, and interesting. Buhanga Eco forest has different sectors and each sector has a different story to tell like concerning the norms, culture, and the traditions of the Yore people in Rwanda and the initiation of the kings. 

 

A small Ditch at Buhanga Eco Park

This small ditch at Buhanga forest was the place where the King’s assistants commonly known as the Abiru in the Kinyarwanda language of Rwanda could pick the local herbs that were added into spring water and given to King to take a ritual bath as part of the early process of the King’s coronation. The reason for the herbs in the spring water was meant to cleanse the King before he takes his shower. The small ditch is surrounded by a flowery thicket and a small lava stone.

 

The Dark cave

Buhanga Eco-park forest cave is surrounded by huge boulders, it’s was the place where the King was wheeled in the Royal carriage, referred to as “Ingobyi” in the Kinyarwanda language of Rwanda, right from the palace in Nyanza he couldn’t make any stop on the way, the King could only make his first stop in the dark cave in order to take his bath with the spring water varied with herbs gotten from the small ditch, referred to as a fortune bestowing bath, known as “Kwihagira” in Kinyarwanda of Rwanda. The king could be smeared with regal oil immediately after bathing and carried to the conference podium.

 

Conference Podium

The conference podium is the place where the King would receive the Kingship instruments he would use while in power, blessings, protection from the gods, and he was immediately titled officially as “Umwami” in Kinyarwanda of Rwanda. His Ceremony was presided over by his advisory council, elders, clan heads, and royal sorcerers.

 

The Three-in-one tree

 The three-in-one tree showcased the harmony and unity between the three Rwandan ethnic groups who served the King loyally. The three-in-one tree species are referred to as “Inyabutatu” by the Banyarwanda of Rwanda, the local people of Rwanda say the three in one came as a result of three different tree species of Inigabiro, Igihondondo, and Umusando that intertwined forming a three-in-one-tree. travelers will also be able to see the outstanding Umuvumu known for “curse.”  by the Banyarwanda because one day about thirty local men cut it for firewood before they had carried the wood, it turned back into the original tree the next day, and these men perished with their families.

 

 A small spring that contains dark cold ice water where the King’s bathing water used to be withdrawn. in 1988, the local chief asked his men to dredge this water spring, but before night had reached, the small spring was having overflowing water again, and then the next day, huge snakes came at the local chief’s place for seven days and on the eighth day, the local chiefs and his family died.