India GOBuddha Shakyamuni: the sage of the Shakyas and the places of his life
बुद्ध · ཤཱཀྱ་ཐུབ་པ
Siddhartha Gautama, the awakened one: a teacher, not a god; the path he taught was first spoken in Sarnath.
Shakyamuni means “the sage of the Shakyas”, the clan Siddhartha Gautama was born into in the Himalayan foothills. He was born at Lumbini, now in Nepal, and the three other places of his life, the awakening, the first sermon and the passing, all lie in India. Sarnath, about 10 km north of Varanasi, is where the teaching was first spoken aloud, and it is the easiest of them to reach.
Story
A prince of the Shakyas left his palace at twenty-nine, tried starving himself and found the middle way instead; under a fig tree at Bodh Gaya he awoke. He walked to the Deer Park at Sarnath and set the wheel of the teaching turning for five companions; the Dhamek stupa marks the spot. Tradition dates his passing to 543 BCE, scholars put it about a century later; the teaching outlived the argument.
तुम्हेहि किच्चं आतप्पं, अक्खातारो तथागता
“The effort is yours to make; the Tathagatas only point the way.”
Dhammapada 276
Places linked to them
Sarnath · Varanasi Mulagandha Kuti Vihar · Varanasi Kanheri Caves · Mumbai Lumbini Park and the Boat to the Buddha · HyderabadFestivals
The four places of his life
Buddhist pilgrims have long followed the life of the Buddha through four places. Only one of them lies outside India.
Lumbini, Nepal: the birth
By Buddhist tradition the prince of the Shakyas was born here, in the plains just across the Indian border.
Bodh Gaya, Bihar: the awakening
Under a fig tree he became the Buddha, “the awakened one”. On Buddha Purnima pilgrims from Tibet, Sri Lanka, Japan and Thailand chant and meditate under the Bodhi tree through the night.
Sarnath, near Varanasi: the first sermon
The deer park where he first taught five companions. By tradition he then spent 40 or 45 years walking and teaching and gathered a community of monks, the sangha.
Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh: the passing
By tradition he died here at eighty and entered parinirvana, the final release. Dates differ: early 20th-century historians gave 563–483 BCE, while many scholars now place his death around 400 BCE.
Sarnath: three stops in one afternoon
Sarnath is a quiet park of lawns and ruins, a change of pace from the ghats of Varanasi. The Dhamek stupa, a 5th-century cylinder of brick and stone, marks the place of the first sermon; the excavated site is a ticketed ASI enclosure.
Next door, the Archaeological Museum, the oldest site museum of the Archaeological Survey of India (1910), holds the original Lion Capital of Ashoka, which India adopted as its national emblem, and a 5th-century Buddha preaching the first sermon. It has a separate ASI ticket and is closed on Fridays.
The living temple is Mulagandha Kuti Vihar, opened by the Maha Bodhi Society in 1931 near the place where, by tradition, the Buddha spent his first rainy season. Its walls carry the life of the Buddha painted by the Japanese artist Kosetsu Nosu, and the evening chanting, usually around 17:00, is open to anyone who sits quietly. Entry is free; shoes come off at the door. The Deer Park lies right behind it.
His traces far from the Ganga
Buddhism once ran the length of India, and two cities keep very different traces of it.
Kanheri Caves, Mumbai
More than a hundred Buddhist caves cut into one basalt hill inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park, worked from the 1st century BCE to the 10th century CE as a monastic university. The great prayer hall still has its carved pillars and standing Buddhas. Closed on Mondays; go early.
Hussain Sagar, Hyderabad
A granite Buddha stands on an island platform in the lake. Boats leave from Lumbini Park on the southern shore; the last hour before sunset is the most rewarding, and the statue’s lights come on as you return.
Buddha Purnima
Buddhist tradition holds that the Buddha was born, awoke and passed away on the same full moon, the full moon of Vaishakha. In 2027 Buddha Purnima falls on Thursday 20 May, a gazetted holiday. It is a quiet festival of white clothes, flowers, lamps and chanting. In Sarnath the relics of Mulagandha Kuti Vihar are usually shown in the morning of the day (in some years they travel abroad); in Delhi prayers are held at Buddha Jayanti Park: Buddha Purnima in Delhi.
❓ FAQ
Why is the Buddha called Shakyamuni?
Shakyamuni means “the sage of the Shakyas”, his clan in the Himalayan foothills. The name separates the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, from the other buddhas of Buddhist teaching.
Was the Buddha Indian, Nepali or Chinese?
He was born at Lumbini, in today’s Nepal, and lived, awoke, taught and died in what is now north India. Buddhism spread to China and the rest of East Asia only centuries later.
Where did the Buddha give his first sermon?
At the deer park of Sarnath, about 10 km north of Varanasi. The Dhamek stupa marks the place.
When is Buddha Purnima in 2027?
On Thursday 20 May 2027, the full moon of Vaishakha.
Is the Buddha a Hindu god?
In Buddhism he is a teacher, not a god. The Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism counts him as an avatar of Vishnu; Buddhists traditionally do not accept this.