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  นิตยสาร สารคดี: ฉบับที่ ๒๒๒ เดือนสิงหาคม ๒๕๔๖ ISSN 0857-1538  

Buddhist Holy Sites

  Story: Varaya Phungtonpian / Photo: Pit Yaopirom
 
Click to Bigger     Every time we travel to a foreign place, we come back changed, our perspectives toward the world slightly altered. A pilgrimage to sacred Buddhist sites in India, is likely to do more than just broaden one's outward outlook, however. It also inspires an investigation into one's inner world.
    Like Mecca for Muslims, the four sites of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment, first sermon, and death in India and Nepal attract millions of Buddhists from around the world every year. 
Click to Bigger      Lumbini, in what is now Nepal, is the birthplace of the Gautama Buddha. Inaccessible by car until recently, Lumbini was in the Buddha's time a lush beautiful garden where his mother Maya Devi, gave birth to him on the full moon of the month Visakha (6th lunar month). Today the site is a calm and peaceful place, marked by the temple of Maya Devi. Beautiful shrines have recently been built around the site by devotees from Buddhist countries, including Thailand. 
     Bodh Gaya in India is the place where Buddha attained enlightenment while meditating under a Bodhi tree after having practiced austerities for six years. Buddhists from Thailand, Sri Lanka, Burma, Tibet, Bhutan and Japan have established monasteries and temples near the site. The site has become an international place of pilgrimage, vibrant with a flow of Buddhists and Hindus of all nationalities coming here to pray, meditate and contemplate especially around the ancient Bodhi Tree. 
Click to Bigger     After attaining enlightenment, the Buddha went to rural Sarnath where he preached his first sermon to five ascetics and set in motion the "Wheel of the Dharma". The place today is marked by a large stupa called Dhamekha, originally constructed by Emperor Ashoka over 2,000 years ago.
    The Buddha devoted the rest of his life to teaching people of all castes and backgrounds the wisdom that he attained. On his last day of life, at the age of 80, he delivered his last sermon and entered Parinirvana (the final Nirvana) in Kusinara, the last holy site.
    A visit to all four holy sites, each located hundreds of kilometers apart, provides insight into the life of the Buddha and appreciation for his compassion for all beings.