“Sarnath is the site of Gautama Buddha’s first teaching and is not far to the north of Varanasi. Consequently this site has been one of Buddhist pilgrimage and veneration, but the traffic through which we press to reach Sarnath is already congesting the roadways. We compete with slow moving cattle hauling wagons laid high with produce. There, fog still clouded Sarnath’s ruins, shrouding whatever the colour of the sky was on that morning.” (from Post 11- Day 4 ‘Sarnath’). What is here is little of what there once was, and what there is, is blurred from clear view. The haze precludes any prospect of vivid photographs. Only the 44 metre high Dhamekh stupa pierces the grey veil that otherwise envelopes the ruins. The mind alone is left to reconstruct the past grandeur and daily spiritual intensity of Sarnath.
Geoff Williams 