Recently, all the Buddhist around the world celebrated wesak, Is the day that Buddha was born & when he attain mahaparinirvana state.
Here are the 4 most important holy places of Buddha in India which I went 2 years ago
Lumbini, Nepal
The birthplace of the Buddha. He was born a prince and was sheltered from the outside world until an eventful journey in which he witnessed the "Four Sights" - an old man, a sick man, a poor man, and a corpse. This led him to leave his life of luxury to seek the meaning of life through meditation and self-denial.
Lumbini is the place where the Buddha, known as the Tathagata* was born. It is the place which should be visited and seen by a person of devotion and which should cause awareness and apprehension of the nature of impermanence.' * Tathagata - One who has found the Truth.It is said in the Parinibbana Sutta that Buddha himself identified four places of future pilgrimage: the sites of his birth, enlightenment, first discourse, and death. All of these events happened outside in nature under trees. While there is not any particular significance in this, other than it perhaps explains why Buddhists have always respected the environment and natural law.
Bodhgaya, India
Site of the Buddha's enlightenment. After Guatama had nearly killed himself with fasting and self-denial to no avail, he settled down beneath a tree and vowed not to move until he had attained enlightenment. Finally, he did understand the meaning of life and became the Buddha, the "Enlightened One."
Bodhgaya (also written Bodh Gaya) is the site of the Buddha's enlightenment and one of the four most sacred sites for Buddhists. Known as Uruvela in the Buddha's time, the city of Bodhgaya is a village of about 30,000 permanent residents in northeastern India.
The two major sacred sites in Bodhgaya are the Mahabodhi Temple and the Bodhi Tree, around which many Buddhist monasteries and temples have been built over the centuries. Over the centuries many other temples and monasteries of various Buddhist traditions have been built in Bodhgaya, which are interesting attractions in themselves.
Sarnath, India
Site of the Buddha's first sermon. Shortly after his enlightenment, the Buddha shared what he had learned with a small gathering of friends in a deer park at modern-day Sarnath. This event is known as "the turning of the wheel of the Dharma" - here the Buddha set in motion the teachings of Buddhism that would spread throughout the world. Sarnath is located near the Hindu holy city of Varanasi.
Kushinagar (Kusinara), India
Place of the Buddha's death, or passing into nirvana. The date is not known to historians for certain, but Buddhist tradition puts his death at 543 BC on a full-moon day in the month of May (Vesak on the Indian calendar). He lapsed into a peaceful meditative state, then passed into Nirvana in that reclined position. His last words to the monks were, "All component things are changeable. Work hard to gain your own salvation." The Buddha's parinirvana, as this event is called, represents the ideal death for a Buddhist and is frequently depicted in Buddhist art.
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