Гуру Пурнима
India 2007
Sarnath close Benares (Varanasi)
The First Sermon of the Sakyamuni Buddha Delivered at the Isipatana Deer Park Sarnath
Buddha came to Sarnath, 10 km northeast of Varanasi, to preach his message of the middle way to nirvana after he achieved enlightenment at Bodhgaya. He gave his famous first seremon here to handful ot followers in a deep park which has recently been recreated. In the 3rd century BC Ashoka had magnificent stupas and monasteries erected as well as en engraved pillar. When Xuan Zang, a Chinese traveller, dropped by AD 640, Sarnath had a 100m-high stupa and 1500 monks living in large monasteries. However, soon after, Buddhism went into decline, and when Museum invaders destroyed and desecrated the city's buildings, Sarnath disappeared altogether.
