Pilgrim’s progress
There are four important places related to the Buddhist history. These are Lumbini, Sarnath, Bodhgaya and Kushinagar. We visited all these places on a tour organised by the TU Buddhist study department.
Our tour started from Kathmandu and we reached Devdahaat, where we visited the house of the maternal uncle of Gautama Buddha. We proceeded to Ramgram where we visited some stupas.
On our arrival at Lumbini, we stayed at a place called Korian Vihar. We visited the Mayadevi temple and also the place where Mayadevi gave birth to Gautama Buddha. Then we visited Miglihawa and Sagarhawa, which have stambas above water in a pond. And at Kapilavastu and saw many stupas and monastries.
The next day, we crossed the Indo-Nepal border and started for Kushinagar, where we went to a Burmese stupa and to a Buddha temple, which is in the middle of a pond. We visited Sarasvati Vihar, which is where Lord Buddha spent his 25 years in meditation. We also visited Vaishali, where there is a world peace pagoda.
After this, we went to Nalanda University, which is the oldest university of the world. Then we started for Bodhgaya, which is the place where Prince Siddhartha gained enlightenment and became Gautama Buddha. After this followed a trip to Sarnath and Kashi. There we saw a Nepali temple and Bishwanath temple.
The tour lasted 10 days and we had a good time. I would like to thank the TU Buddhist study department for giving us this opportunity to learn about the Buddhist history.