Sārnāth

Sārnāth, near Varanasi in modern Uttar Pradesh, India, is the pilgrimage site traditionally identified as the deer park where the Buddha gave his first teaching (the 'turning of the wheel of Dharma') after his awakening. The Sri Lankan reformer Anagārika Dharmapāla and his Maha Bodhi Society worked to restore the site and re-establish a Buddhist presence there in the early twentieth century.