Pilgrimage Tours India: Exploring Holy Facet of Buddhism

India has been the birth place of great many saints who all by their teachings and miracles reached the thin fencing between a normal human-being and a God and has been recognized as ‘super human beings’. These people attain many followers who walked the path showed by them and with the passing time, their path turned into their religion. India is the only nation where so many different religions prevail at a time. Several religions have grown here in perfect harmony for a long period and continue to captivate the observer. Among them one of the most prominent and preached religion in India is Buddhism.

Pilgrimage Tours in India offer tourists and opportunity to embark on a journey to explore a gamut of spiritual destinations in India. Pilgrimage tour India provides a spiritual voyage to many religious sites in India. The destinations covered in this Buddhist pilgrimage tour include Mumbai, Ajanta and Ellora Caves, Sanchi, Bodhgaya and Patna.

Starting off with Maharashtra, the Ajanta and Ellora caves situated in the region of Aurangabad are a spectacular location to view the beautiful rock-carved caves exploring various aspects of Buddhist culture and their religion. The famous stories from jataka tales are depicted in the form of wall paintings which narrates the various events of Lord Buddha’s life from being Prince Siddhartha to his transformation into the Gautama Buddha after attaining Nirvana, the structure of Chaitya gathering halls, carvings of Buddha, Bodhisattva and saints.

The next destination you will reach is Bhopal. The Sanchi district of Bhopal is renowned for the Buddhist pilgrimage especially The Sanchi Stupa. The pillar was build sometime around (273-236 B.C.) was built by Emperor Asoka in Buddha’s honor in Sanchi and many other places as well. The Buddha has been shown emblematically in the form of tree or through other inorganic figures. One of the faction of Buddhism opposed portrayal of Lord Buddha by a human figure. The Archaeological museum in Bhopal has a tremendous collection of sculptures brought from various parts of the world including Buddhist sculptures too.

The next route in the series of Buddhist pilgrimage tour is the Bodhgaya. The Bodhi tree present here is the prominent place where Lord Buddha is said to have achieved supreme enlightenment. The place is a must visit to get a peek into beginning of Buddhism. Bodhgaya has several important attractions which narrate the story of how Buddha attained Nirvana.

The Mahabodi temple situated in the east to the Bodhi tree is an architectural treasure. The temple is said to have built by Emperor Asoka after the 250 years of the enlightenment of Lord Buddha. Other sites of Bodhgaya are Chankramana, Ratnagarh, and 80ft statue of Buddha, Chinese and Japanese monastery, Buddhist monastery of Bhutan, Lotus Tank, Buddha Kund, Brahm yoni and Archeological Museum.

Another important Buddhist pilgrimage destination in India is the city of Sarnath, the place where Gautam Buddha first came after achieving enlightenment. Here in the deer park, Lord Buddha first taught Dharma.

The Last destination in the Buddhist pilgrimage tour is Patna being called Patliputra in ancient times and Pataligama for Buddha. In regard to Buddhist pilgrimage, the Patna museum has an exceptional collection of Buddhist Art especially the beautiful statues of Avalokitesvara and Maitreya in the main arcade.

The Buddhist Pilgrimage tours avails you the opportunity to discover the deep aspects of Buddhism and lets you benefit from the holy teachings of Lord Buddha whose remains have been preserved on the walls of these magnificent pilgrimage sites since ages. India is a reservoir of Buddhist pilgrimage sites and it was here that Buddha attained ‘nirvana’ and went on to preach the sermons of ‘dharma’. For those looking to unravel the mystique of Buddhism and its working pilgrimage tours in India offer a perfect opportunity to get into the deeper aspects of religion and spirituality.