Yes, it's the Buddha, not just Buddha, as it is a title, not a name, and in this context it refers to a specific person -- born Siddhartha Gautama, son of a minor king in a kingdom which is now part of Nepal -- whose life is commemorated in this, the 2,570th year, of the Buddhist calendar. His birthday is the 8th day of the fourth lunar month, and this year it falls on the 24th of May by the Gregorian calendar.
To mark the holiday a stupa of colorful paper laterns has been set up in the plaza. It's surrounded by a fence of miniature lanterns, each of which carries a prayer or wish written by a devotee on a mock gold-leaf leaf (ha!).



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