Kapilavastu

Pilgrimage to Buddha's Holy Sites
The Four Main Sites
Lumbini · Bodh Gaya Sarnath · Kushinagar
Four Additional Sites
Sravasti · Rajgir Sankissa · Vaishali
Other Sites
Pataliputra · Gaya · Kosambi Kapilavastu · Devadaha Kesariya · Pava Nalanda · Varanasi
Later Sites
Sanchi · Mathura Ellora · Ajanta · Vikramshila Ratnagiri · Udayagiri · Lalitgiri Bharhut · Barabar Caves

Kapilavastu (Pāli: Kapilavatthu) is the name of a place in the ancient Shakya kingdom where Gautama Buddha grew up, and which contained his family home and garden. It is assumed to be some 10 kilometers to the west of his known birthplace Lumbini. The latter reference point is marked by an Ashoka Pillar and was granted World Heritage status by UNESCO.

The nineteenth-century search for the historical site of Kapilavastu followed the accounts left by Xuanzang and Faxian. Archaeologists have identified the Tilaurakot archeological site in Nepal as a possible location for Kapilavastu. It is widely accepted that the Lord Buddha spent the first 29 years of his life in the vicinity of Kapilavastu.

See also

• Kapilvastu district, a district of Lumbini Zone, Nepal.
• Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautama Buddha and Buddhism
• Nigrodharama, a Buddhist monastery where Buddha stayed when visiting Kapilavastu

External links

• Description of Kapilavastu by the Chinese pilgrim monk Faxian (399-414 AC)
• Suttas spoken by Gautama Buddha concerning Kapilavatthu: (more)

1. Cula-dukkhakkhandha Sutta - The Lesser Mass of Stress
2. Sakka Sutta - To the Sakyans (on the Uposatha)''