Sarnath Tourism, Holiest site for Buddhism, Uttar Pradesh |Pravase

History, Culture, Best Places to Visit and Travel Guide of Sarnath, Major Pilgrimage Destination of Uttar Pradesh, India

Sarnath is the holiest site across world for Buddhism and famous pilgrimage cum tourist destination located on confluence of holy river Ganga and Varuna, just at 10 km from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. After attaining nirvana or enlightenment, Gautama Buddha had delivered his first discourse or taught the Dharma to his first five disciple here at Sarnath. And Sarnath is the place where first Buddhist Sangha was formed and came into existence, thus this site is believed to be one of the main four Buddhist site across the world. This first sermon of Lord Buddha is famous as the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta in which he explained about the four noble truths and the teachings associated with them. Along with Buddhism, Sarnthan is also important site for the Hinduism and Jainism as well. Singhpur, the village at just one km from Sarnath, was the birthplace of Shreyansanath, the Eleventh Tirthankara of Jainism.

Sarnath, formerly known as Isipatana is also famed with several names like Mrigadava or Migadaya which means deer park, and Rishipattana. Here Isipatana means the place where holy men landed in language Pali. Sarnath is named after the Sarangnath or the Deer God. Interesting legend associated with this places in which the Bodhisattva (any person on path of buddhahood) is a deer and offers his life to a king instead of the doe the latter is planning to kill. The king is so moved that he creates the park as a sanctuary for deer. You can find the deer park here at Sarnath.

It is believed that the Gautam Buddha reached to Sarnath from Bodhgaya after seven weeks of his enlightenment at Bodhi Tree. Here he taught Dharma to five former companions who had started journey of austerity and settled down at Sarnath.

Sarnath being the main and highly sacred place for Buddhist across the world, thus lot of countries like Japan, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Myanmar etc. who followed Buddhism as major religion have established their temples and monasteries here. You can observe different architectural styles of these countries.

Sarnath is beautiful and peaceful place where you can just forget the hustle and bustle of urban life. There are lots of things to watch here at Sarnath. You can observe lots of stupas, temples and monuments here at Sarnath which are mainly divided in two group, the Chaukhandi Stupa and all other. The main attraction here is Dhamek Stupa which is most popular in tourist. It was made up of brick in a solid and cylindrical shape of height 43.6 m and diameter of 28m during the rule of great king Ashoka in the 249 BCE. Chaukhandi Stupa is the place where Lord Buddha met his 5 disciples in 5th century BCE in Sarnath which was built of brick like octagonal tower during 4th to 6th century in the Gupta period. Another important attraction is Dharmarajika Stupa, the place located near to the Dhamekh Stupa and where the remains of bones of the Lord Buddha placed. You can also visit Ashoka Pillar, Museum, Buddha Statue, Migadawon Myanmar Temple, Tibetan temple, Nichigai Suzan Horinji Temple, deer park etc. This is how the history of Sarnath found for more than 2500 years and witness lot of development and invasion.

How to Reach Sarnath, holiest place of Buddhism, near Varansi, Uttar Pradesh, India

Sarnath is one of the four holiest site for Buddhist across the world and just 10 km away from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Thus you can easily reach here via Varanasi from across the India. You can get public and private transport to reach Sarnath from Varanasi. Thousands of devotee and tourist across the world flocked here around the year. Varanasi is very well connected with all major cities of India via Road, Rail and Air network. The temple is located at just 5 km away from the Varanasi railway station and you can reach temple from any corner of cities via cab or rickshaw. Varanasi has major railway junction from where you can get train to all the cities of India like Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Indore, Allahabad, Dehradun etc. at very high frequency. Varanasi has also Airport from where you can flight to several cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Gaya, Hyderabad, Bhuvaneshwar etc. Also Varanasi is import district of Uttar Pradesh thus it is well connected by state and national highway. Sarnath is located at 125 km from Allahabad, 331 km from Kanpur, 319 km from Lucknow, 252 km from Patna, 220 km from Ayodhya, 250 km from Chitrakoot, 252 km from Fatehpur, 200 km from Gorakhpur, 260 km from Gaya.

Taluka / Tehsil: Varanasi, District: Varanasi, State: uttar-pradesh, Country: india.

Religious Importance: Hindu