Sacred Places of The Buddhists (5)

Jetavana, Shravasti, India

A documentary film by BOGDAN-FLORIN PAUL | MAY 14, 2025

Jetavana, or Jeta's Forest, located in Shravasti, Uttar Pradesh, India, is the place where the Buddha spent the longest time after attaining Enlightenment.

He would travel most of the year through the kingdoms of northern India, but he would spend the three months of the rainy season meditating in one place.

Here in Jetavana, in a wooden hut called Gandhakuti, the Buddha spent 24 rainy seasons out of the 45 years in which he expounded his teaching.

At the time, Jetavana was a forested park located just south of Savatthi, the capital of the Kosala kingdom, one of the great Indian kingdoms of the time.

Watch this episode of the documentary film "Sacred Places of The Buddhists" to see what Jetavana looks like today and to learn more about the unique history of this place.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Sacred Places of The Buddhists (3): Bodhi Gaya, Bihar, India

Bodhi Gaya, with its MahaBodhi Temple and the stone slab called Vajra Asana, marking the place under the Bodhi tree where the Buddha attained Enlightenment, is the most sacred of all Buddhist sites.

Sacred Places of The Buddhists (7): The Sapta Parni Caves, India

Sapta Parni, where the First Buddhist Council was held, is today a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists from all over the world.

Sacred Places of The Buddhists (4): Vulture's Peak (Griddhakuta), Rajgir, India

The famous Vulture's Peak, Griddhakuta, also known as Gṛidhrakūṭa (in Sanskrit) and Gijjhakūṭa (in Pāli), was one of the Buddha's favorite meditation places.

Sacred Places of The Buddhists (6): Kushinagar (Kusinara), Uttar Pradesh, India

The ancient Kusinārā, currently Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India, is one of the four main pilgrimage sites for Buddhists. It is the place where, in about 543 B.C.E., Siddhartha Gautama, The Buddha, attained Parinirvana, leaving forever Samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth.

Sacred Places of The Buddhists (8): Nalanda University, Bihar, India

The famous Nālandā University, or Nālandā Maha Vihara, as it was known at the time, was the first international residential university in the world. Founded in about 427 CE, and preceding by more than six centuries the oldest universities in the West like Oxford, Bologna or Cambridge, in its hayday the Nalanda University had about 2,000 teachers and 10,000 students; its campus covered an area of more than 14 hectares, or 34 acres.