Sarnath is where the Buddha first gave his teaching on the
Four Noble Truths: Life includes stress, our attachment increases our stress
through clinging to what we want or pushing away what we don’t want, but there
is an end to stress through following the Eightfold Noble Path, which includes
right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right
effort, right awareness, and right concentration. Here is the Dhammekh Stupa in
Deer Park, where the Buddha first gave this teaching.
The stupa is 100 feet tall and very impressive. The carvings
now only exist on part of the stupa, but give an idea of how beautiful it must
have been in the 4th century.
After meditating in front of the stupa, we decided to circumambulate
for 108 minutes, counting the number of times we walked around: 54, or if you
count both of our circles, 108. Very auspicious!
One of the more intriguing aspects of going on a pilgrimage
is seeing your fellow pilgrims. Almost all, or at least the most obvious to us,
are from Asian countries. At the Deer Park, for example, we saw Tibetans, Sri
Lankans, Burmese, Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Cambodians. Some of the groups
are solely monks, but the majority are householders led by a small group of
monks. They usually perform some type of prayer or ceremony, often chanting,
and then sit down in a group and chant some more. After the chanting, there is
usually a dharma talk by the lead monk or teacher. All of this, of course, is
broadcast for all to hear over small, hand-held amplifiers. Pete made some recordings of the chanting over
a driving disco beat from a tuktuk radio.
There were a number of monasteries in Deer Park, which
are now in ruins. The grounds also included a great number of smaller votive stupas, as seen here.
In the early 20th century, a Sri Lankan
named Angarika Dharmapala travelled to Bodh Gaya and Sarnath. He was appalled
that the important Buddhist sites were neglected, so he made it his life work
to restore them. He built this temple, and also a university and medical center
in Sarnath. The temple has lovely murals by Japanese artist Kotsetsu Nosu depicting
scenes from the Buddha’s life.
We are staying at the monastery that Angarika Dharmapala
built, Maha Bodhi Dharmashala.
Sarnath is a pleasant change from the hectic pace of
Varanasi. Its wide streets have much less traffic, the vendors are much calmer and
not so insistent, with an atmosphere that allows for a contemplative pace.
We also visited a number of temples in Sarnath: Thai,
Chinese, Japanese, Burmese and Tibetan. Here Pete is spinning the prayer wheel
at the Tibetan temple.
We have been enjoying very delicious food on our trip.
Pictured here are sesame shish kebabs cooked in a tandoori oven. The inside of
the balls are sesame seeds mashed to a paste.
One of our favorite Indian dishes is palak paneer (pureed spinach
with fresh cheese). Also shown is chana masala, spicy chick peas, which is also
tasty.
For breakfast we have had a wonderful variety. Here shown
are masala dosas and roti with vegetables, other days we’ve had idli sambar and
paratha with potatoes or vadus (savory lentil donuts with coconut chutney –
yum!) The quality of the food has been quite high, and we’re still enjoying all
the variety of Indian cuisine.
We have two more destinations to go, in order to complete
our Buddhist pilgrimage.