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Four Sacred Sites of the Buddha's Life

Lumbini

Bodhgaya

Sarnath

Kusinagar

Sarnath, India: Place of the Buddha's First Sermon

The deep park at Sarnath is the site where the Buddha delivered his first sermon/teaching. It is also at Sarnath that the Buddha established the order of monks.

The two stupas built by Asoka fell into disrepair and only the Dhamekh stupa has been rebuilt from bricks of the earlier structures.

templedarst
Mulagandhakuti Vihara   Dhamekh Stupa
pilgrims
  
sar
Pilgrims   Marker at First Semon site

Read:

About Sarnath

Watch:

 

This site created by Mary Muenster and Sarah Fendrick at the NEH Summer Institute "Literatures, Religions, and Arts of the Himalayan Region", held at the College of the Holy Cross, Summer 2011.