The Eight Great Places of Buddhist Pilgrimage (3)

As more and more Buddhists begin to realize the importance of performing a pilgrimage following the Buddha’s exhortation, the need for a simple guidebook becomes evident. The basic four pilgrimage sites (Lumbini, Bodhgaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar) were increased in terms of the great events of the Buddha’s life to eight by adding four more places considered to be the scenes of four principal miracles that he performed, namely: (i) The Twin Miracle in Sravasti, (ii) Descent from Heaven in Sankasia (iii) Taming of the drunken elephant, Nalagiri in Rajgir and (iv) Offering of honey by a monkey in Vaishali.