India Border to Kapilavastu and Shravasti

The path is not always easy to walk, but sometimes a stranger comes along and offers to give you a ride.

The first few days of my return to India were not so easy but once I got moving again, I found the kindness of strangers to be a real godsend. I was able to find my way to a couple of the harder to reach Buddhist pilgrimage spots thanks to the help of a few people whose names I don’t even properly know.

I have now checked off India’s Kapilavastu, which largely resembles Nepal’s site, as well as the town of Shravasti and the Jetavana and surrounding sites, where the Buddha spent 24 or 25 monsoon seasons – basically, the place where he spent the majority of his adult life.

The Border

Getting from Lumbini to the border crossing at Siddharthanagar was an easy enough task and getting across the border was not really difficult either. The key to land crossings to and from India and Nepal are that you have to stop on both sides to have your passport stamped for exit and arrival.

Once I made it through this process, I got on a local bus from Sonauli to Nautanwa, where I had heard a local train could take me onward toward Shravasti. I found the train station and there was a train leaving soon but I opted to stay in Nautanwa and try to get a SIM card first.

This turned into a big hassle and I ended up spending two days in Nautanwa and doing a day trip to the bigger city of Gorakphur but eventually I was able to get the SIM card, pick up some India rupees that I had sent to myself via Remitly (which for fellow travelers is a whole lot cheaper way to send money than using ATMs) and mail off a package to the U.S., despite the fact that my second day there was a holiday and both the banks and the post offices were closed that day.

And I would be remiss not to mention a man named Prachand, who I met at the cash pickup point in Gorakphur. I had never met this man, but he generously gave me not only a tasty shot of coffee, but a ride on his scooter to a delivery courier and then dropped me off at the bus station where I was able to get on a bus back to Nautanwa.

On the third morning back in India, I was able to get moving onward with the Buddhist pilgrimage path.

Getting to India’s Kapilavastu

As I was standing along the street with my bags, a local guy asked where I was heading. I told him I was waiting for a local bus to the next town south called Kolhui, from where I would head west toward India’s Kapilavastu.

He told me I didn’t need a local bus and promptly hailed a four-wheeler already pretty laden with people that was headed south. They threw my luggage on top and off we went, packing on a few more riders en route to Kolhui, which is only about 20 km south of Nautanwa.

As soon as I got off that vehicle and looked to the west, I could see the local bus that went to the next town of Birdpur. I got my luggage stowed on top and about a half hour later we were en route to knock off the next 30-plus kilometers.

From the drop-off point in Birdpur, I was able to head north on a tuk-tuk loaded with 10 other people and they dropped me off at the Kapilavastu site, just south of the Indian town of Piprahwa. The whole trip cost me 150 rupees or about $2 USD.

The Archaeological Site and Museum

The site of India’s Kapilavastu costs 300 rupees to enter and seems to be better maintained that Nepal’s free site. I even saw an actually lawn mower on the premises.

The site, however, is much the same. There are several stupas and historic parts of the ancient city, which competes with Nepal’s Kapilavastu for the title of being the home of Siddhartha Gautama and the capital city of the Shakya clan that ruled the region, and of which Siddhartha was a prince.

Just like the Nepal Kapilavastu, India’s site also has a museum although it is free to enter and view the artifacts, which are exhibited in three galleries.

While there is no real explanation of the buildings at the archaeological site as there was in Nepal, the museum contained better information on the history of the site.

The primary claim this site has to being the “real Kapilavastu” is that the primary stupa (or a temple built over a burial site – much like the Egyptian pyramids) was opened by William Claxton Peppe, a British regional colonial ruler in 1898, had the stupa opened and it revealed a variety of artifacts and cremated human remains. The seals of the tomb date back to the 5^th or 6^th Century BCE and the inscription indicates the descendants of the Buddha sealed his remains there. Or at least a part of them. The Buddha’s remains were actually divided and distributed to eight different clans at the time.

Overall, the site is well maintained and not as difficult to reach as I thought it would be – even with luggage in tow. The museum is about 1.5 kilometers from the archaeological site but the tuk-tuks are very cheap. If you go, though, I think I would recommend visiting the museum first and reading about the site before going there, because without the background, it is difficult to know what you are looking at.

Definitely worth the stop if you are making a Buddhist pilgrimage tour.

As an alternate method of reaching this site, if you are coming from the south or from Shravasti / Balrampur, you can take a local train to Naugarh station and then catch a tuk-tuk north to Birdpur or straight to Piprahwa / Kapilavastu. The cost was 600 rupees for a full tuk-tuk (300 to Birdpur and 300 more to the site), which was divided among the number of riders the driver could muster to fill the vehicle.

Onward to Shravasti

So after leaving the museum and stopping for some street food at the corner where the tuk-tuks stopped regularly, I took a cab along with an Indian couple, who were also headed to Naugarh. That was 200 rupees and they took me alone to the train station for an extra 100 rupees or about $4 USD.

They dropped me right at the platform and I went up to check about a ticket on the next train to Balrampur, which was conveniently leaving in the next few minutes. I chatted on the platform and took selfies with the locals in the short amount of time that it took for the train to show up.

Among the group of people I was talking with, a young man who lives in Shravasti introduced himself. He offered to take me from the Balrampur train station on to Shjravasti that same night if I wanted to ride on the back of his two-wheeler.

We rode the train west, which was sort of like a U.S. subway train. It was not very crowded and proved to be a comfortable and smooth ride without any real delays. I chatted with V.D. as he introduced himself. He was a pharmaceutical sales rep for a major company and was returning home after a brief trip to Naugarh.

By the time we arrived in Balrampur a couple hours later, it was dark and the waning full moon was shining brightly overhead. We walked to his motorcycle and boarded up to go.

I won’t say the next nearly 20 kilometers were in any way fun, but they were an experience. Riding on the back of a motorcycle with my luggage on my lap and my trekking backpack on my back was not at all easy. My legs were most uncomfortable but the thought of taking a spill from that precarious position also crossed my mind on more than one occasion.

Regardless, we made it safely without incident and I got off at a local hotel. I did not even get V.D.s full name or contact information. He took down my number before he drove off into the night but I have not heard from him as of the writing of this.

The Town and Mahet Site

The first morning, I had to leave the hotel because they were full on the following night, so I inquired at the nearby Myanmar monastery, which said I could stay for a donation. So I moved my stuff, spent some time mediating in the temple area and set out to explore.

This was my chance to stay in a monastery since I opted not to do that in Lumbini, and it proved to be a pleasant environment although it was much like a hotel with large busloads of tourists arriving in the evenings and departing in the mornings. I had a walkway with a railing overlooking a central courtyard, along with a clothesline that gave me a perfect opportunity to catch up on my laundry without taking it to a service.

I wandered around by the various temples and monasteries, but unlike Lumbini, most of the gates were closed and no one really seemed to be around. I eventually made my way to the local Vipassana Meditation Center, where the office manager greeted me at the gate. We discussed Vipassana and he told me their next 10-day course starts on Dec. 2. He also showed me into a small meditation hall and gave me a brief 10-minute introduction to Vipassana meditation. I probably sat for nearly 20 minutes by the time he returned to check on me.

After leaving there, I stopped for some street food and made my way north toward the Jetavana site. This is the site where the Buddha lived in his lifetime. After the Buddha’s death, a rich merchant named Anathapindika wanted to build a monastery there but the prince of the land Jeta, who owned the property did not want to sell. So the prince made a ridiculous offer that if the merchant could cover the land with coins he would sell it for that amount. As the story goes, Anathapindika sold his assets and covered the majority of the expansive site with 108 million silver coins. The prince was impressed by the merchant’s devotion and sold for that price, using the money that he was given to build an elaborate entrance to the site.

I did not visit Jetavana on my first day as it was already getting on toward noon and a couple of busloads of tourists were queued up to get in. And unlike Anathapindika, I did not bring enough cash even to cover the 300 rupee entry ticket.

Instead, I went north toward some ruins called Mahet, which includes an ancient Jain temple, the site of the small town and a stupa built over the jail where a highwayman turned devout disciple of the Buddha named Angulimala (literally meaning “finger necklace”) served his time for robbery and cutting off the victims’ little fingers for his mala.

I spent the rest of that day trying to get to the massive golden statue of the Buddha that is on the grounds of an expansive monastery compound just west of Jetavana. The whole compound, however, remains closed for COVID, which it seems other than a few mask-wearing Buddhists is not really a thing in India any more. Regardless, we could not get in and I, in my tallness, helped a group of pilgrims get photos of the iconic statue from over the top of a 7-foot fence. Another busload of teenage schoolkids showed up, which meant lots of selfies and group photos.

I made my way through the small town of Shravasti, stopping for some soap to hand-wash my clothes, before heading back to the monastery for laundry and dinner.

Jetavana: The Buddha's Home

The following morning, I made my way directly to the Jetavana site, which was already abuzz with activity by the time I arrived. There were a couple of groups of southeast Asian tourists, an Indian boys academy and numerous monks who apparently live in the nearby monasteries. There actually appeared to be far more monks here than I saw in Lumbini.

I started to make my way around to the various sites. Near the very start of the tour is the place where the Buddha spent at least 24 or 25 monsoon seasons. Apparently, at that time, monks were only allowed to spend more than one or two nights at the same location during the monsoon and Shravasti was the Shakyamuni Buddha’s go-to place for the rainy season.

One thing I was not expecting, in India, you can climb all over these archaeological remains. In fact, they are well-maintained and it is clear that they have been liberally supplemented with modern brickwork as needed. Crews work daily to scrub the brickwork clean at the site.

So, I saw other people up by the Buddha’s living room and took a seat near that location for meditation. It was quite a feeling to be sitting and meditating so close to the exact spot where the Buddha himself spent many hours in quiet solitude. It was good to be able to sit without distraction for a few minutes under the warm morning sun and soak in this feeling.

As soon as I came down though, the students from the boy’s academy were wanting to take dozens of selfies. A local monk must have taken pity on me, because he helped me get away from all that noise and showed me the spot where the Buddha did much of his teaching and the well from which he drank.

Next up was the bodhi tree, which is believed to have been planted from a seed that fell from the same bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya where the Buddha achieved enlightenment. If it is truly the same tree, it could quite possibly be the oldest known tree on the planet.

The site also includes a number of other stupas and remains of monastic residences, along with a site called Mahastupa that is still being brought up to the same condition as the rest of this site. Behind this area, I found a spot where the view of the golden Buddha statue is better than the view from the fence and let my eyes fall shut for a short nap in the grass.

When I awoke and went back to the main area, I discovered that nearly all the crowds had left for lunch and the one remaining tour group was making its way back toward the gate. I essentially had the site to myself.

I went back to the bodhi tree for a bit, but the scrubbers, who were taking their own lunch hour, were making a fuss over some monkeys who were about the site -- more trouble, it seemed, than the monkeys themselves were making. So I returned to the Buddha’s hut and sat some more in silence until people started to make their way back to the park.

I posed for one more round or selfies before showing myself out of the park.

The Way Forward

As I reflect on my stay, I think the most important lesson my stay in Shravasti taught me was that I should be more like the people who helped me get there and less like the tourists who impose themselves on the scenery around them.

I know I am a tourist, stopping at the sites to take pictures and post them to this blog, but at the same time, I can be like the locals too. I can lend a hand when it is fitting to do so; I can be gracious when a group of schoolkids wants to take five minutes of my time for photos and superficial conversation; and I can spare a few rupees or a bit of food for children and old women and the infirm who need it. I know I can’t help everyone and the language barrier is often a challenge to finding a suitable way to assist others, but I can try.

And most importantly, I can remember to smile when I do it. Because I never know when a smile might help someone else find their way through a bad day.