The Buddhism Project Use the images and information to complete your project on Buddhist pilgrimage sites

Project Outline

• What is a Pilgrimage?

• Where do Buddhists go for pilgrimage?

• Reasons why people go on a pilgrimage

• A map showing the key four places of pilgrimage

• An explanation of what happened there to make it so important

• Why the place is so important to Buddhists today and how a Buddhist would feel being involved in the pilgrimage

• What you can see there if you go there today.

• Some pictures to show evidence of the trail

Place What happened here?

Why is it important

Lumbini Grove

The Buddha was born here.

It was the last birth of Buddha

Bodh Gaya

Where Buddha gained enlightenment

He came to wisdom here and broke the cycle of suffering

Sarnath

Where Buddha gave his first discourse (sermon)

Buddha delivered his first speech here. The word began to spread

Kushinagar

Where Buddha passed from this life

Buddha died from food poisoning. His soul left his last earthly body.

Lumbini Grove

The sacred birth place of Lord Buddha and a World Heritage Site today, Lumbini is an important Buddhist pilgrimage center. Cuddled in the foot hills of the great Himalayas near the Indo- Nepal border, Lumbini is considered one among the four pilgrimage destination of the Buddhist. The name of this place is also entered in the Parinibbana Sutta, where Buddha himself had mentioned its name as an important pilgrimage place. Lumbini grove, the most privileged travel site of Lord Buddha's birth, is today a small village in Nepal, 27 km from Sonauli on the Indo-Nepal Border. Lumbini evokes a kind of holy sentiment to the millions of Buddhists all over the world as do the Jerusalem to Christians and Mecca to Muslims.

Lumbini Grove- The Birth of Buddha

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXgEApkgXas

Bodh Gaya

Bodhgaya is one of the most important and sacred Buddhist pilgrimage center in the world. It was here under a banyan tree, the Bodhi Tree, Gautama attained supreme knowledge to become Buddha,the Enlightened One. Born; in the foothills of the Himalayas as a Sakya prince of Kapilvastu (now in Nepal), most of the major events of his life, like enlightenment and last sermon, happened in Bihar. Buddhism as a religion was really born in Bihar and evolved here through his preaching and the example of his lifestyle of great simplicity, renunciation and empathy for everything living.

Bodh Gaya – Enlightenment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hki9U5-g75g

Sarnath Sarnath is the deer park where Gautama Buddha first taught. This is called a “sermon”. Sarnath is located 13 kilometres north-east of Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is mentioned by the Buddha as one of the four places of pilgrimage which his devout followers should visit.

Sarnath – The First Discourse Buddha tells his followers about the noble truths. Here it is in simplicity; “the middle way”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7scCqQyDNA

Kushingar Kushinagar (also spelled Kusinagar or Kusinara) is the site of the Buddha Shakyamuni's death. It is located next to Kasia, a rural town in the state of Uttar Pradesh, 52 km from Gorakhpur, in northern India. The huge statue of the Reclining Buddha, excavated in 1876 at the temple, is one of the most momentous of all sights for the devout. It was brought from Mathura by a devout monk, Haribala, during the reign of King Kumara Gupta in the 5th Century A.D.

Kusingara – The death of Buddha

• His Final Words…..

• “Make of yourself a light. Rely upon yourself: do not depend upon anyone else. Make my teachings your light. Rely upon them: do not depend upon any other teaching.

Maitreya Project

A Useful Website – “In the footsteps of Buddha” • http://www.tcindia.com/packages/footsteps_of_buddha.html