Page 227 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - India

BIHAR & JHARKHAND  225

In the Buddha’s Footsteps

The Buddha was born in 566 BC as Siddhartha Gautama, prince of the kingdom of
Kapilavastu. Though born in Lumbini, in Nepal, all the places associated with his life and
his teachings are in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. These are now part of a well-travelled circuit
for Buddhist pilgrims, who follow in the Buddha’s footsteps from Bodh Gaya, where he
attained enlightenment, to Sarnath, where he preached his first sermon; through other
places he visited regularly, and finally to Kushinagar, where he died in 486 BC.

Renouncing his princely life, Prince
Siddhartha (represented here by a
riderless horse) left his palace and his
family at the age of 30, to search for
answers to the meaning of human
existence and suffering.

Emaciated by fasts Enlightenment came
and penances while at Bodh Gaya, where,
he spent six years after meditating for 49
living with ascetics days under the Bodhi
and wandering Tree, he discovered that
as a beggar, Prince the cause of suffering is
Siddhartha found desire; and that desire
that such self- can be conquered by
mortification gave following the “Eightfold
him no answers. Path” of Righteousness.

The First Sermon,
delivered at Sarnath (see
p212), contained the
essence of his teachings.
Eschewing asceticism,
rituals, caste and class
distinctions, his Eightfold
Path prescribed Right The Buddha’s Death took place in 486 BC.
Thought, Understanding, He fell ill after eating wild mushrooms
Speech, Action, Livelihood, prepared by one of his followers, and died
Effort, Concentration in a grove of sal trees at Kushinagar, where
and Contemplation. a stupa marks the site of his cremation.

The Buddhist Trail
attracts Buddhists
from all over the world,
including countries
Lumbini
• NEPAL such as Japan and
•
Kapilavastu Thailand. Many stupas
• Kushinagar
UTTAR BIHAR and temples along
PRADESH • Vaishali
Sarnath • Patna • the pilgrimage circuit
Varanasi • • Nalanda owe their existence
Bodh Gaya • • Rajgir to these devotees. This
Buddha image was
Buddhist Pilgrim Sites built by the Japanese.
See also the features on Little Tibet (p127) and Buddhist Iconography (p145).
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