Overview
Buddhist Circuit Tour includes places of high significance holy sites of Buddha. Lumbini Nepal the place of Lord Buddha was born, Bodhgaya India the place of his Enlightenment, Sarnath India the place of his first sermon, and Khushinagar India he reaches to Nirvana.
Lumbini: Lumbini is in southern Nepal, where Queen Mayadevi gave birth to Prince Siddhartha. It is just a 59-kilometer distance from the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu. Pilgrimages focus on the sacred garden which contains the site of the birth. Sacred Lumbini garden is a world heritage site with monasteries from many Buddhist countries in their own style of arts and architecture. Over 25 international Buddhist monasteries are here to study Buddhism, meditation within the garden. The Pashkarni pond in Lumbini is a holy pond where Maya Devi took a holy dip just before giving birth to the Lord Buddha and also infant Buddha was given his first purification bath here. The Ashoka pillar and The Mayadevi temple are the most-visited sacred sites in Lumbini.
Bodhgaya: It was in Bodhgaya in Bihar of India, that Prince Siddhartha found Enlightenment (nirvana) under the bodhi tree after meditating for 49 days. No longer a bodhisattva (mentor), he became Lord Buddha, the Enlightened One. The Vajrasan throne donated by King Ashoka now builds as Mahabodhi Temple is the primary of the homage Buddhist pilgrimage site in Bodhgaya. The holy Bodhi tree, The Animeshlochana Chaitya, The Ratnachankramana, The Ratnagaraha, The Ajapala Nigrodha Tree, Rajyatna Tree, and Muchhalinda pond are the visiting spots for pilgrimage. Many Buddhist countries have built temples or monasteries around the complex.
Sarnath: Buddha gave his first sermon at Sarnath India after achieving enlightenment, about 13 km north-east from the ancient holy city of Varanasi the confluence of the holy Rivers Ganges and the Varuna. It was here that the Buddha established his first disciples (sangha) to promote his new doctrine. The splendid Dhamekha Stupa at Sarnath was originally erected by King Ashoka, as it was the famous lion capital pillar, now the proud symbol of India. This city is mentioned by the Buddha as one of the fourth places of Buddhist pilgrimage to which his devout followers should visit if they wanted to visit a place for that reason.
Khushinagar: Lord Buddha fell ill and left this world in 543 BC at Khushinagar. His mortal remains were preserved in eight commemorative Chortens, and then further distributed by King Ashoka into 84,000 stupas across his kingdom and beyond. Kushinagar is closed to Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh of India, and nearby Nepal.
Bodh Gaya: Bodh Gaya is a religious site and place of pilgrimage associated with the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Gaya district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is famous as it is the place where Gautama Buddha is said to have attained Enlightenment (Pali: bodhi) under what became known as the Bodhi Tree. Since antiquity, Bodh Gaya has remained the object of pilgrimage and veneration both for Hindus and Buddhists. In particular, archaeological finds including sculptures show that the site was in use by Buddhists since the Mauryan period. For Buddhists, Bodh Gaya is the most important of the main four pilgrimage sites related to the life of Gautama Buddha, the other three being Kushinagar, Lumbini, and Sarnath. In 2002, Mahabodhi Temple, located in Bodh Gaya, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
