Kushinagar
Heading over the border from Nepal to India, sits the quiet,
seldom-touristed town of Kushinagar. This is believed to be the place where the
Buddha, at the age of 80, rolled onto his side, put his head in his hand and
died.
The town itself isn’t much to speak of, a dusty spot
boasting ruins of an ancient city, a fairly unique temple housing a reclining
Buddha statue, a smattering of monasteries from various Buddhist countries, the
stupa and ghat where the Buddha is said to have been cremated.
The wandering monks, the lack of other tourists, the relative
serenity, make Kushinagar a place for contemplation and reflection rather than
pomp and spectacle.
Sarnath
Just outside the bustling Indian city of Varanasi lies the
deer park where the Buddha, after obtaining Enlightenment, gave his first
sermon. To those who would become his
first five disciples he laid out what he called the Middle Path. This would become
the basis for Buddhism.
Sarnath’s deer park isn’t much to see. The site sports a
temple and the ruins of a stupa. The Buddha’s first sermon is posted in
numerous languages – from Chinese and English to Burmese and Sanskrit –
allowing those coming from any of the various Buddhist nations to read what was
taught here. A miniature zoo (small zoo, not small animals, sadly) sits behind
the temple, offering patron a glimpse of deer in the deer park, as well as a handful
of rabbits and birds. A bit down the street a Thai monastery sits quietly
beside a towering Buddha.
It felt fitting to visit a place of teaching in a fairly
unassuming park. It seemed more suitable than the big, international jostling
to build temples or the hordes of pilgrims. It was a quiet conclusion to our
tour of the Buddha’s life, a peaceful respite from the honking traffic of the
city.