Lumbini · Bodh Gaya · Sarnath · Kusinara

The Buddha's Life on a Map

Built by Tim Yu, Founder & Editor · Published 10 November 2026

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Follow the Buddha’s life across the middle Ganges plain, step by step: born at Lumbinī, awakened at Uruvelā, teaching first near Bārāṇasī, and passing away at Kusinārā. Each step says whether the early discourses tell it or later biographies add it, and how sure archaeologists are that today’s site is the ancient place.

Step 1 of 23

Step 1 · Birth and youth

Born in the Lumbinī grove

Lumbinī · Lumbini, Rupandehi district, Nepal

Early core, later detailSite identifiedOne of the four pilgrimage places

A verse of the Sutta Nipāta (Snp 3.11) places the birth 'in Lumbinī, a village in the Sakyan land'. The emperor Ashoka later visited and set up a pillar recording that the Buddha was born here.

“Ānanda, a faithful gentleman should go to see these four inspiring places. What four? Thinking: ‘Here the Realized One was born!’—that is an inspiring place.”
DN 16:5.8.1–5.8.3, trans. Bhikkhu Sujato · read it in full

Later biographies (the Nidānakathā) set the birth in a sal grove, Queen Māyā holding a branch. An early discourse, MN 123, already has the newborn take seven strides.

The early texts give the core; later biographies add detail. Archaeology or an inscription identifies the modern site with the ancient place.

Source: Nālaka Sutta, About Nālaka (Snp 3.11), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral · Site: The Edicts of King Asoka, Minor Pillar Edict 1 (Lumbini) and Rock Edict 8, trans. Ven. S. Dhammika, Access to Insight

Three layers of the story

The Buddha’s life comes to us in layers. The early discourses and the monastic rules tell parts of it, often in the Buddha’s own voice: his going forth, the years of striving, the awakening, the first teaching and, in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, his last journey. Later biographies fill in the rest, from the birth stories to the great departure. Each step is labelled by its layer, and the cards quote the early texts where they speak. For the full life, read who was the Buddha and the historical Buddha.

Every step, with its sources

Step	Where	What happened	Evidence
1 Birth and youth	Lumbinī Lumbini, Rupandehi district, Nepal	Born in the Lumbinī grove. A verse of the Sutta Nipāta (Snp 3.11) places the birth 'in Lumbinī, a village in the Sakyan land'. The emperor Ashoka later visited and set up a pillar recording that the Buddha was born here. Later biographies (the Nidānakathā) set the birth in a sal grove, Queen Māyā holding a branch. An early discourse, MN 123, already has the newborn take seven strides.	Early core, later detail · Site identified Nālaka Sutta, About Nālaka (Snp 3.11), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral
2 Birth and youth	Kapilavatthu Tilaurakot, Kapilvastu district, Nepal	A Sakyan upbringing at Kapilavatthu. In DN 14 the Buddha names his father, King Suddhodana, his mother, Queen Māyā, and his capital, Kapilavatthu. In MN 36 he recalls sitting in the shade of a black plum tree while his father worked, and entering the first absorption. Disputed: Nepal's Lumbini Development Trust places Kapilavatthu at Tilaurakot (marker); an Indian government note, at Piprahwa. Later biographies add the four chariot rides.	Early core, later detail · Site disputed Mahāpadāna Sutta (DN 14), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral
3 Going forth and striving	Kapilavatthu Tilaurakot, Kapilvastu district, Nepal	Going forth at twenty-nine. In MN 26 the Buddha recalls going forth while still young and black-haired: against his weeping parents' wishes he shaved his hair and beard and put on ochre robes. DN 16 gives his age as twenty-nine. MN 26 and DN 16 name no place. The Nidānakathā has him ride out of Kapilavatthu at midnight on Kanthaka. Marker: Tilaurakot, Nepal; India places Kapilavatthu at Piprahwa.	Early core, later detail · Site disputed Ariyapariyesanā Sutta (MN 26), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral
4 Going forth and striving	Rājagaha Rajgir, Nalanda district, Bihar, India	King Bimbisāra meets the young wanderer. In the Sutta Nipāta's 'Going Forth' (Snp 3.1), King Bimbisāra sees a young wanderer on alms round in Rājagaha, visits him on Mount Paṇḍava and offers him pleasures. He declines: a Sakyan by birth, he will go on to strive. The Archaeological Survey of India lists Rajgir's walls of 'old and new Rajgriha', dating them to the 6th–5th centuries BCE.	Early texts · Site identified Pabbajjā Sutta, Going Forth (Snp 3.1), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral
5 Going forth and striving	Senānigama, Uruvelā Bodh Gaya area, Gaya district, Bihar, India	Two teachers, then striving at Uruvelā. He mastered what Āḷāra Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta taught, then left them (MN 26 names no place). Wandering through Magadha he settled at Senā in Uruvelā, where MN 36 tells of extreme fasting until he judged it led nowhere and ate again. MN 26 and MN 36 give no duration. 'Six years' appears in the Chinese Ekottarika Āgama (EA 31.8), the Pali Apadāna and the Nidānakathā; Sujātā's milk-rice, in the Nidānakathā.	Early core, later detail · Region only Mahāsaccaka Sutta (MN 36), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral
6 Awakening	Uruvelā, by the Nerañjarā river Mahabodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya, Gaya district, Bihar, India	Awakening at Uruvelā. At Uruvelā he found the freedom he sought; MN 26 has him know 'this is my last rebirth'. The Vinaya opens soon after, with the Buddha seated at the foot of the Bodhi tree by the Nerañjarā river for seven days. Ashoka's Rock Edict 8 records a tour to 'Sambodhi'; the Archaeological Survey of India says he built a small temple near the Bodhi tree.	Early texts · Site identified Vinaya, Mahāvagga, the great chapter (Kd 1), trans. Bhikkhu Brahmali, SuttaCentral
7 Teaching	Isipatana deer park, near Bārāṇasī Sarnath, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India	First teaching in the deer park at Isipatana. He walked to Bārāṇasī to find the five ascetics who had served him during his striving. In the deer park at Isipatana he taught them the middle way and the four noble truths: in SN 56.11, the rolling forth of the Wheel of Dhamma. The Archaeological Survey of India cites an early medieval inscription at Sarnath that names the event, the turning of the wheel of Dharma.	Early texts · Site identified Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral
8 Teaching	Veḷuvana (Bamboo Grove), Rājagaha Venu Van, Rajgir, Bihar, India	Bimbisāra gives the Bamboo Grove. After winning over the Kassapa brothers, dreadlocked ascetics of Uruvelā, and teaching at Gayāsīsa, he came to Rājagaha. In the Vinaya, King Bimbisāra gives the Saṅgha his Bamboo Grove park, and Sāriputta and Moggallāna come there to join him. The Archaeological Survey of India lists 'venu van' among Rajgir's protected remains; that the modern garden is the ancient park is tradition.	Early texts · Traditional site Vinaya, Mahāvagga, the great chapter (Kd 1), trans. Bhikkhu Brahmali, SuttaCentral
9 Teaching	Banyan Tree Monastery, Kapilavatthu Tilaurakot, Kapilvastu district, Nepal	Back at Kapilavatthu: Rāhula goes forth. Staying at the Banyan Tree Monastery, the Buddha visited Suddhodana's house. His son Rāhula followed him asking for his inheritance, and Sāriputta gave the boy the going forth. Grieving, Suddhodana asked that no child go forth without the parents' permission. Disputed site: Tilaurakot in Nepal (marker) or Piprahwa–Ganwaria in India. Tradition dates this visit one or six years after the awakening, Britannica notes.	Early texts · Site disputed Vinaya, Mahāvagga, the great chapter (Kd 1), trans. Bhikkhu Brahmali, SuttaCentral
10 Teaching	Jeta's Grove (Jetavana), Sāvatthī Saheth-Maheth, Shravasti district, Uttar Pradesh, India	Anāthapiṇḍika buys Jeta's Grove at Sāvatthī. At Sāvatthī, capital of Kosala, the householder Anāthapiṇḍika bought Prince Jeta's park by covering it with coins, built dwellings there and, on the Buddha's advice, gave it to the Saṅgha as a whole, present and future. Ruins at Saheth are 'supposed to represent Jetavana', says the Archaeological Survey of India; a copper plate of 1130 CE there grants villages to the Jetavana monastery.	Early texts · Site identified Vinaya, Cullavagga, the chapter on dwellings (Kd 16), trans. Bhikkhu Brahmali, SuttaCentral
11 Teaching	Hall with the peaked roof, Great Wood, Vesālī Kolhua, near Vaishali, Bihar, India	Mahāpajāpatī and the first nuns at Vesālī. Refused at Kapilavatthu, Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī, the aunt who raised the Buddha, shaved her head and walked with Sakyan women to Vesālī. After Ānanda pleaded for her, she accepted eight principles of respect, and that was her ordination (AN 8.51). The Archaeological Survey of India reports remains of the kūṭāgārasālā (peaked-roof hall), a monastery and an Ashokan pillar at Kolhua, near Vaishali.	Early texts · Site identified Gotamī Sutta (AN 8.51), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral
12 Teaching	Ghosita's Monastery, Kosambī Kosam, Kaushambi district, Uttar Pradesh, India	The quarrel of the Kosambī monks. At Ghosita's Monastery in Kosambī the monks split over whether one of them had committed an offence. In the Vinaya the Buddha three times tells them to stop; when they refuse he leaves, later finding ease alone at Pālileyyaka. The Archaeological Survey of India protects the ancient fortress at Kosam as 'representing the ancient Kaushambi'. The marker sits in the city site; Ghosita's Monastery is not separately identified.	Early texts · Site identified Vinaya, Mahāvagga, the chapter on division in the Sangha (Kd 10), trans. Bhikkhu Brahmali, SuttaCentral
13 Teaching	Saṅkassa Sankisa, Farrukhabad district, Uttar Pradesh, India	Descent from heaven at Saṅkassa (later legend). Later legend says the Buddha spent three months in the heaven of the Thirty-three teaching his mother, then came down at Saṅkassa on a triple stairway. The Chinese pilgrim Faxian, travelling 399–414 CE, found a vihāra and a pillar marking the spot. Britannica calls Sankisa (ancient Samkashya) a famous Buddhist pilgrimage centre whose mounds are the remains of Buddhist stupas.	Later biography · Traditional site Faxian, A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, ch. XVII (Sankasya), trans. James Legge (1886), Project Gutenberg
14 Last journey	Gijjhakūṭa (Vulture's Peak), Rājagaha Gridhrakuta hill, Rajgir, Bihar, India	The last journey begins on Vulture's Peak. DN 16 opens on Vulture's Peak near Rājagaha, where King Ajātasattu's minister Vassakāra reports the king's plan to attack the Vajjis. The Buddha answers with principles that prevent decline, then sets out with a large company of monks. The Archaeological Survey of India lists 'gridhkut' among Rajgir's protected remains; that this hill is the peak of the texts is tradition.	Early texts · Traditional site Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral
15 Last journey	Pāvārika's Mango Grove, Nāḷandā Nalanda, Nalanda district, Bihar, India	Nāḷandā and Sāriputta's lion's roar. By way of Ambalaṭṭhikā he reached Nāḷandā and stayed in Pāvārika's mango grove. There Sāriputta declared that no ascetic, past, future or present, surpassed the Buddha in awakening; the Buddha called it a lion's roar and questioned him. The Archaeological Survey of India says Nalanda's history goes back to the Buddha's time, but the great monastery there was founded in the 5th century CE.	Early texts · Traditional site Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral
16 Last journey	Pāṭaligāma Patna, Bihar, India	Pāṭali Village: a great city foretold. At Pāṭali Village, Magadha's ministers were building a citadel to keep the Vajjis out. DN 16 has the Buddha foretell that it will become Pāṭaliputta, a chief city and trade centre, threatened by fire, flood and dissension. He then crossed the Ganges. Sujato notes this is modern Patna. The Archaeological Survey of India protects remains of Pāṭaliputra's wooden palisade at Bulandibagh and a Mauryan pillared hall at Kumhrar.	Early texts · Site identified Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral
17 Last journey	Ambapālī's Mango Grove, Vesālī Vaishali (Basarh), Vaishali district, Bihar, India	Ambapālī's mango grove at Vesālī. By way of Koṭigāma and Ñātika he reached Vesālī and stayed in the courtesan Ambapālī's mango grove. She won the right to feed him before the Licchavi nobles, would not sell it to them, and next day gave the park to the Saṅgha. The Archaeological Survey of India identifies Vesālī with Basarh, where seals bearing the city's name were found. The marker shows the city site, not the grove.	Early texts · Site identified Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral
18 Last journey	Beluva (Beluvagāmaka) Unidentified village near Vaishali, Bihar, India	Last rains at Beluva: 'I'm eighty'. Sending the monks to spend the rains around Vesālī, he stayed in the little village of Beluva, fell gravely ill and recovered. He told Ānanda he was eighty, and taught: live as your own island, with the teaching as your refuge. DN 16 places Beluva near Vesālī but gives nothing more; the marker shows Vaishali, not the village. He later relinquished his life force at the Cāpāla Shrine.	Early texts · Region only Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral
19 Last journey	Cunda's mango grove, Pāvā Kushinagar district, Uttar Pradesh, India (site unproven; marker at Fazilnagar)	Cunda's last meal at Pāvā. Walking on through Bhoga City, he reached Pāvā and stayed in the mango grove of Cunda the smith. After Cunda's meal, which included sūkaramaddava (meaning unclear; Sujato: 'pork on the turn'), the Buddha fell severely ill with bloody dysentery. Unproven. Kushinagar district cites local tradition placing Pāvā at Usmanpur; the Fazilnagar marker is approximate. Jains set Mahāvīra's death at another Pāvā, east of Nāḷandā (Sujato).	Early texts · Region only Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral
20 Last journey	Sal forest of the Mallas at Upavattana, Kusinārā Kushinagar, Kushinagar district, Uttar Pradesh, India	Between the twin sal trees at Kusinārā. Resting by the road and bathing in the Kakudhā river, he crossed the Golden River to the Mallas' sal forest near Kusinārā and lay down between twin sal trees. There he named four places a faithful follower should go to see. Cunningham identified Kasia with Kusinārā; V. A. Smith disputed it (1896, 1902). The Archaeological Survey of India names Kushinagar the place of nirvana; the district identifies it with Kushinara.	Early texts · Site identified Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral
21 Last journey	Upavattana sal forest, Kusinārā Mahaparinirvana Temple, Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India	Final passing at eighty. After the wanderer Subhadda received the going forth and the monks, asked three times, raised no last question, the Buddha spoke his last words. Passing up and down through the meditative absorptions, he became fully extinguished, DN 16 says. Excavations here in 1876–77 under A. C. L. Carlleyle uncovered the main stupa and the reclining Buddha statue now in the Mahanirvana Temple, says Kushinagar district.	Early texts · Site identified Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral
22 After the passing	Makuṭabandhana shrine of the Mallas, Kusinārā Ramabhar Stupa, Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India	Cremation, and the relics divided in eight. The Mallas cremated the body at their shrine east of the town, called 'Coronation'. When seven claimants, from King Ajātasattu to the Mallas of Pāvā, demanded shares, the brahmin Doṇa divided the relics in eight; he kept the urn, and the Moriyas took the embers. Kushinagar district says Ramabhar Stupa 'perhaps represents' the cremation site. At Vaishali, the Archaeological Survey of India says, literary tradition ties a stupa to the Licchavis' share.	Early texts · Traditional site Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral
23 After the passing	Kapilavatthu (the Sakyans' relic monument) Piprahwa–Ganwaria, Siddharthnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, India	A Sakyan share? The Piprahwa relic casket. DN 16 says the Sakyans of Kapilavatthu claimed a share of the relics for a monument. In 1898 an inscribed casket was found in the stupa at Piprahwa; an Indian government note reads the inscription as naming relics of the Buddha and the Sakyas. India cites the casket and sealings naming Kapilavastu to place Kapilavatthu here; Nepal's Lumbini Development Trust holds it was Tilaurakot. Marker: Ganwaria, the excavated township.	Early texts · Site disputed Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16), trans. Bhikkhu Sujato, SuttaCentral

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Frequently asked questions

Where was the Buddha born, awakened, first taught and passed away?

By the texts and the pilgrims' tradition: born at Lumbini in southern Nepal, where Ashoka's pillar inscription records the Buddha's birth; awakened at Uruvela, today's Bodh Gaya in Bihar; first taught at Isipatana, today's Sarnath near Varanasi; and passed away at Kusinara, today's Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh.

What are the four Buddhist pilgrimage sites?

The four places the Buddha names in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta (DN 16) as worth a faithful person's visit: where he was born, where he awakened, where he first taught and where he passed away. Today they are Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar. The map rings all four when you choose 'The four pilgrimage places'.

Where was Kapilavatthu, the Buddha's home town?

Its site is disputed. Nepal's Lumbini Development Trust places it at Tilaurakot, near Lumbini, where Durham University archaeologists also work; an Indian government note places it at Piprahwa in Uttar Pradesh, citing an inscribed relic casket and monastery sealings found there. The map puts the marker at Tilaurakot and names both.

How much of the Buddha's life story is history?

The early discourses and monastic rules tell much of it, often in the Buddha's own voice: his going forth at 29, his striving and awakening, the first teaching and his last journey. Later biographies add familiar scenes such as Sujata's milk-rice and the descent from heaven at Sankassa. The map labels every step by which layer tells it.

Is anything I do on the map saved?

No. Nothing is stored or sent anywhere. The step you are looking at is kept in the page address, so you can bookmark it or send it to someone.