Presents sites important to those interested in the Dharma, and gives location of the site, historical events associated with the site, the features a pilgrim would find, and how the site figured in the transmission of the Dharma.

A pithy guidebook for Buddhist pilgrims to the four holy sites of India. “The aim of all Buddhist practice is to catch a glimpse of the awakened state. Going on pilgrimage, soaking up the sacred atmosphere of holy places, and mingling with other pilgrims are simply different ways of trying to achieve that glimpse.”—from chapter 1, “Holy Buddhist Sites” Pilgrimage is a powerful method for remembering the Buddha’s teachings and putting them into practice. For Buddhists, the most important holy places are the four sites associated with the Buddha’s life: • Lumbini, where Siddhartha was born as an ordinary human being • Bodhgaya, where Siddhartha became enlightened • Varanasi (Sarnath), where the Buddha taught the path to enlightenment • Kushinagar, where the Buddha passed into parinirvana While it may be an inconvenient, chaotic, and even dangerous journey, traveling to these places can be profoundly affecting and transformative for a practitioner. In his fourth book, Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse skillfully lays out how we can make the most of our experience as pilgrims. He explains what makes a person or place “holy,” what pilgrimage is all about, and what we can do when visiting the four holy sites of India and Nepal—or any holy place. This manual shows us how to partake in one of the most potent practices available to remind ourselves of the entirety of the Buddha’s teachings.

Homeland of the Buddha is a guide for those visiting the major sites of Buddhism which lie on the great plain of the Ganges in India and Nepal. The main emphasis is the life of the Buddha; how each location was significant during his time; and how that history came to be known in the modern world. The book is useful for those wish to travel, as well as those who seek to know where and how the Buddha taught, two and a half thousand years ago. Although it discusses some aspects of the Buddha's teachings, it does not seek to be a book about Buddhism. Detailed maps and numerous colour images enliven the text. A chapter is devoted to each Buddhist site. The first section of each chapter summarises the reason why that place has significance and details how the Buddha, and other individuals contributed to our knowledge of that place. The 'Today' section of each chapter details what the modern traveller can see in each location, in the sequence that they experience them. Every visitor to India is changed, no matter how much, or how little, they may be cossetted by luxury, or how little they are attuned to the realities of life which India forces on them. It is a truism that India alters the way people think about themselves and their lives. In that sense any travel to India is a pilgrimage. How much more so therefore, when your travel is directed to walking the same paths as one of the world's greatest teachers and more so, if your intent is towards self-awareness. Whether you plan to travel in person, or in the mind, 'Homeland of the Buddha' will inform your journey. So that, whatever your intention, the one who returns will be different from the one who set forth. When touring the country of the Buddha, we all carry the metaphorical staff of a pilgrim. The author has visited the holy Buddhist places numerous times since the 1960s and has travelled extensively in Asia, the Himalaya and Tibet. For more than twenty years he has been a practitioner of Zen Buddhism. As a young man, he worked for several years as a doctor in the Mount Everest region of Nepal and has been involved with Sir Edmund Hillary's development work in Nepal since that time.'Homeland of the Buddha' brings this lifetime experience of Asia into focus as a practical, informative guide to the major Buddhist sites of India and Nepal.

The Dalai Lama has said that Tibetans consider themselves “the child of Indian civilization” and that India is the “holy land” from whose sources the Tibetans have built their own civilization. What explains this powerful allegiance to India? In The Holy Land Reborn ̧ Toni Huber investigates how Tibetans have maintained a ritual relationship to India, particularly by way of pilgrimage, and what it means for them to consider India as their holy land. Focusing on the Tibetan creation and recreation of India as a destination, a landscape, and a kind of other, in both real and idealized terms, Huber explores how Tibetans have used the idea of India as a religious territory and a sacred geography in the development of their own religion and society. In a timely closing chapter, Huber also takes up the meaning of India for the Tibetans who live in exile in their Buddhist holy land. A major contribution to the study of Buddhism, The Holy Land Reborn describes changes in Tibetan constructs of India over the centuries, ultimately challenging largely static views of the sacred geography of Buddhism in India.

Takes the reader on a pilgrimage to Mount Kōya, the holy Buddhist mountain in Japan.

Derived from a Buddhist funerary text, this famous volume's timeless wisdom includes instructions for attaining enlightenment, preparing for the process of dying, and moving through the various stages of rebirth.

Award-winning photographer Kevin Bubriski captures in stunning detail the sacred places of Nepal's Kathmandu Valley. Noted scholar Keith Dowman provides history and commentary on the significance of the sites.