Accordingly, Buddhists consider Sarnath to be the birthplace of Buddhism. Pilgrims flock
here from all over the world. “Fewer than one percent of the population in India is now
Buddhist because Hinduism has become strong in this country,” our guide said. Although
Sarnath is also held holy by the Jains as “a site of asceticism,” where their 11th Tirthankara
(supreme religious leader) died, for centuries this place was not visited by many people.
The archeological work that began in 1789, and still continues