Sarnath

Trip Start Jul 08, 2008

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of India Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
Sunday, August 31, 2008

It's been a while since I've posted one of these and I thank everybody for their patience. I'm still in India but the time is running short at this point with about a month left.... until I fly to Thailand for more wandering. A lot has happened since the last entry and to sum it all up, I spent a month teaching in Bodhgaya, traveled through Bihar, visited Darjeeling with its beautiful Himalayan views and tea plantations, trekked through Sikkim, spent a month in Nepal trekking and helping out with an orphanage, crossed back into India and traveled west to Rajesthan seeing the Taj Mahal and catching an Indian wedding on the way, and then started heading south where I just completed a 10-day meditation retreat in Hyderabad. A more detailed version of all this will unfold for those with yet more patience. I hope everybody is doing alright in their daily endeavors and always feel free to send me an email. I'm picking up where I left off....

We had linked up with another British traveler, Andrew, who was staying at our guesthouse and the three of us decided to leave the heart of the old city for the deer park of Sarnath, where the Buddha had given his first teaching. We set out on the crowded path and noticed a familiar site; four bodies wrapped in white cloth, resting on green bamboo stretchers, making their way towards the cremation area on the shoulders of outcastes.

We entered the main market area where all the backroads seemed to converge and arranged a rickshaw ride to Sarnath. Crammed in with our packs the rickshaw now resembled a clown car but was just as packed as every other vehicle on the road. Once we reached a less congested area towards the outskirts of town the driver, obviously looking for entertainment, offered to let us drive. Tom took control and we began to weave and abruptly change speeds (no offense Tom) until we pulled up at Sarnath.

At many of the major Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India temples and monasteries representing the various Buddhist sects (Tibetan, Thai, Burmese, etc) have been built and maintained by their respective countries. We decided to stay at the Japanese Temple and were led to a simple dorm-like room. One of the conditions for staying involved participation in the evening and morning programs and as Andrew had a train to catch that evening he went ahead to see the sites of Sarnath as Tom and I stayed behind at the temple.

We entered the main shrine area for the evening program and sat on the cushions near the front. It was clear that the Japanese government maintained this temple merely as a respectful presence as it housed only two monks and a few Indian groundskeepers who seemed serious about Zen. The chanting began and the groundskeepers, sitting on the left and right sides of the shrine, began pounding large horizontal barell-like drums with wooden poles. We were given objects that resembled tennis requets with a membrane stretched across the face and wooden sticks to strike them in unison with the beating drums. The program involved about 30 minutes of regimented pounding.

The next morning, following another session of pounding, we walked to the small train station in Sarnath and booked tickets to Gaya leaving from Varanasi in the evening. With that task behind us we now had the rest of the day to see Sarnath with ease. We started walking towards the ruins.

The very spot where the Buddha gave the teaching on the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path is marked by an ancient brick stupa towering at over 100 feet originally constructed around 200 BC. This spot was surrounded by many monasteries and pillars, which were all eventually reduced to foundations at the hands of Muslim invaders. We entered the area of the ruins which were contained in a peaceful grassy area with well trimmed shrubs. The entrance and walking path were arranged in such a manner that visitors would complete a clockwise walk around the ruins as they approached the large stupa at the end; the very spot where Buddhism began.