Buddhist sites in India

I enjoyed the letter on visiting northern India (Oct. ’07, pg. 73), however I was a bit taken aback by the comment “There are almost no Buddhist sites in India proper.”

When we were in Delhi in February ’07, we met a student at an Internet café who was in India studying Buddhism. She was following the Buddhist circuit, a tour offered by several companies.

Lonely Planet’s “North India” has a section entitled “The Way of the Buddha” which states that three of the four locations that Buddha considered should be sacred to his followers are in India proper: Buddha gained enlightenment in Bodhgaya in Bihar; he preached his first sermon in Sarnath, which is often visited in conjunction with a trip to Varanasi, and he died in Kushinagar.

Other sacred sites, such as Sanchi, were not part of the Buddha’s life but are sacred to his followers. In addition, of course, the Dalai Lama lives in Dharamsala and there are, as well, other centers of Tibetan Buddhism in the north.

We have not visited all of these sites.

JANE B. HOLT

Hinesburg, VT