India
Bodh Gaya is, perhaps, the most important of the pilgrimage sites, the place where Siddhartha attained awakening under the pipal tree. This Bodhi Tree (tree of awakening) is believed to be the ancestor of the tree that currently grows in Bodh Gaya next to the great stupa at the Mahabodhi temple. Cuttings from the original tree have been planted around the Buddhist world and temples erected next to them.
Ashoka set up the first building in Bodh Gaya in the third century
Among them were 10,000 Tibetan Buddhist monks and approximately 1,000 Westerners. This was the Kalachakra Tantra's largest audience to date. The Dalai Lama chose this spot as the most auspicious to offer these teachings, including teachings from Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. Everyone in attendance took the bodhisattva vows from His Holiness. The place of Siddhartha's enlightenment is known as the vajrasana (“diamond throne”).
One of the more well-known Buddhist pilgrims was Hsüan-tsang, a monk from eighth-century China who traveled vastly throughout central and southern Asia and spent many years in India and Sri Lanka studying Buddhism. Hsüan-tsang spent sixteen years in India on a pilgrimage. He studied at Nalanda University and visited all the important Buddhist pilgrimage sites.
You can also see a cave where Siddhartha practiced asceticism and the village of Uruvela, where the young Siddhartha broke his fast after attaining enlightenment.
Sarnath, several miles from Varanasi, is another major pilgrimage site where the Buddha gave his First Sermon in the Deer Park and started the wheel of dharma turning. Sites of interest in Sarnath include Ashoka's Pillar (which used to have the Lion Capital on top of it that now resides in the Sarnath Museum), the ruins of the Mulagandhakuti, and the enormous Dharmek Stupa — a tower that dates back to the fifth or sixth century.
To the east is the modern Mulagandhakuti Vihara, which is said to house the original relics of the Buddha in a silver casket. The casket was recovered from the ruins of the first-century temple. The temple has beautifully painted walls that depict the Buddha's life story. The Sarnath Museum contains some of the greatest treasures of Indian Buddhist art. There is also an archaeological museum and the remains of a monastery from the third century
Also of interest in India is Rajgir, the home of Vulture Peak, the site of many of the Buddha's teachings.
Kushinagara is the site of the Buddha's death. It is here in the Sala Grove that he reached paranirvana and passed into death. Places of interest in Kushinagara include the Nirvana Stupa, built over the spot where the Buddha died; the Makutabandhana Stupa, which marks the place of the Buddha's cremation; and a large stone reclining Buddha, housed in the Nirvana Temple.
