Sarnath
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How it came to be
Sarnath, near Varanasi in India, is where the Buddha is believed to have given his first sermon in the 6th century BC and met his first disciples. The Buddha himself is said to have named it one of the four principal places of pilgrimage.
Around 250 BC the emperor Ashoka raised a pillar here, and its capital of four lions back to back is now in the Sarnath Museum; the wheel on India's national flag is based on the wheel on its abacus. Over the centuries kings, monks and lay people built stupas, temples and monasteries, but the site declined in the 12th century and was forgotten.
In 1794, when the Dharmarajika stupa was being pulled down for building stone, a marble casket in a stone box came to light, and Alexander Cunningham excavated the site in 1835-1836. The Chaukhandi stupa and the archaeological remains that include the Dhamek stupa were inscribed in July 2026.
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