Greater Lumbini Buddhist Circuit: Tilaurakot, Ramagrama, Devadaha & Ashokan-Pillar Sites

The Greater Lumbini Area (GLA) is the cluster of Buddhist heritage sites in Nepal's southern Tarai that surround Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautama Buddha. It spans the districts of Rupandehi, Kapilvastu and Nawalparasi, and is administered largely by the Lumbini Development Trust (LDT), the government body established in 1985 (2042 BS) to implement Lumbini's master plan. Beyond Lumbini itself, the area holds the ruined cities, monasteries and stupas where Prince Siddhartha grew up, where his family lived, and where relics of the Buddha and of earlier Buddhas were enshrined.

The pilgrimage circuit knits these sites into a single itinerary. Its four headline destinations are Lumbini, ancient Kapilavastu (Tilaurakot), Devadaha and Ramagrama, but the fuller network under LDT jurisdiction also includes Kudan, Gotihawa, Niglihawa, Sagarhawa and Araurakot. Together they cover the story of the Buddha's early life, his return home after enlightenment, and the fate of his mortal remains after his Mahaparinirvana.

For pilgrims from Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, China and elsewhere, and for students of South Asian archaeology, the circuit is significant because so much of it remains unexcavated or only partially studied. It offers a rare, relatively undeveloped window into an Iron Age urban landscape of the 1st millennium BCE that later became sacred Buddhist geography.

Tilaurakot lies in Kapilvastu Municipality of Kapilvastu district, on the bank of the Banaganga river, roughly 27 km west of Lumbini and a short distance north of Taulihawa. Most scholars identify it as the historical Kapilavastu, the capital of the Shakya kingdom where Prince Siddhartha (later the Buddha) spent his first 29 years. The identification is contested by an alternative Indian site, Piprahwa-Ganwaria, just across the border, and that unresolved debate has shadowed Nepal's efforts to have Tilaurakot recognised.

The site is a fortified citadel of about 500 by 400 metres, ringed by an earthen rampart (later faced with brick) and a moat, with monumental gateways on the north and west sides. Excavations and geophysical survey — including work by the Durham University Tilaurakot-Kapilavastu Archaeological Project with Nepal's Department of Archaeology and UNESCO — have revealed a well-planned city with a grid of streets. Radiocarbon dating indicates occupation from around the 6th century BCE through to the early centuries CE, spanning the Painted Grey Ware, Northern Black Polished Ware and Kushan phases.

Tilaurakot was added to UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List in 1996 under reference number 840, described as 'Tilaurakot, the archaeological remains of ancient Shakya Kingdom'. Nepal formally sought full inscription, but at the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris in July 2025, the nomination was deferred following a recommendation by ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments and Sites), which raised outstanding conservation and management issues. It therefore remains on the Tentative List rather than being inscribed.

Ramagrama stands in Ramgram Municipality of Parasi (Nawalparasi West) district, on the bank of the Jharahi river, roughly on the eastern side of the Greater Lumbini Area. It is revered as the single most important survival of early Buddhism because it is the only one of the eight original relic stupas that has never been opened or disturbed. After the Buddha's Mahaparinirvana at Kushinagar, his cremated relics were divided among eight claimant states, and stupas were raised over each share at sites traditionally listed as Allakappa, Kapilavastu, Kushinara, Pava, Rajagriha, Ramagrama, Vaishali and Vethadipa.

According to the chronicle tradition (notably the Sri Lankan Mahavamsa), Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE reopened seven of the eight stupas to redistribute the relics among the '84,000' stupas he is said to have built across his empire. When he reached Ramagrama, a Naga (a serpent-being) guarding the stupa persuaded or prevented him from removing the relics, so the stupa was left intact. That legend, whatever its historical basis, is why Ramagrama is uniquely believed to still hold the Buddha's original relics.

The surviving brick mound is about 7 metres high, with the buried structure reaching roughly 10 metres and a base diameter of about 23.5 metres; the wider protected complex covers roughly 50 metres square. Ramagrama was added to the Tentative List in 1996 (23 May 1996) under reference number 843 as 'Ramagrama, the relic stupa of Lord Buddha'. Conservation and development work has been supported in recent years with international assistance to protect its outstanding universal value.

Emperor Ashoka (reigned c. 268-232 BCE) toured the Buddhist homeland and set up inscribed sandstone pillars to mark holy places; two of these survive in the Kapilvastu area alongside the far more famous Lumbini pillar. At Niglihawa (the tank known as Nigali Sagar), about 20 km northwest of Lumbini and roughly 7 km northeast of Taulihawa, lie the broken pieces of a pillar bearing an Ashokan edict in the Brahmi script and Prakrit (Pali) language. The inscription records that Ashoka, in his 14th regnal year, enlarged for the second time the stupa of Konagamana (Kanakamuni) Buddha, and then in his 20th year came in person, paid homage, and set up the pillar.

The Niglihawa inscription is historically important as one of the earliest datable records to name a 'previous Buddha' by name and to use the word for stupa (thuba/thube). The fragments were noted after a Nepalese officer came upon the pillar in 1893, and the inscription was studied in 1895. Because no in-situ foundation was found beneath the fragments, scholars think the pillar may have been moved from a nearby original location.

At Gotihawa, about 4-5 km southeast of Taulihawa, the stump of another Ashokan pillar stands on its original masonry base beside a large brick stupa mound. Gotihawa is traditionally identified as Khemavati, the birthplace of Krakuchhanda (Kakusandha) Buddha, the first of the Buddhas of the present age. The pillar's upper, inscribed portion is lost, so its text is unknown, but its base is one of the few Ashokan pillar remains still in their original position. Together, Niglihawa and Gotihawa give Kapilvastu its reputation as a 'land of Buddhas', linked not only to Shakyamuni but to two earlier Buddhas of tradition.

Devadaha, about 35-55 km east of Lumbini in Rupandehi district (in present-day Devdaha Municipality), was the capital of the Koliya republic and the maternal home of Queen Mayadevi, the Buddha's mother, as well as of his aunt-stepmother Prajapati Gautami and his wife Yashodhara. Tradition holds that Mayadevi was travelling from Kapilavastu towards Devadaha when she gave birth at Lumbini. The area preserves mounds, ponds and shrines, with Bhawanipur locally regarded as the ancestral seat of the Buddha's mother's family.

Kudan, a few kilometres south of Tilaurakot, is identified with the Nigrodharama (Nyagrodha grove) monastery where, after his enlightenment, the Buddha is said to have first met his father, King Suddhodhana, on his return to Kapilavastu. The site holds several stupas, a large mound, a well and a tank. Sagarhawa, north of Taulihawa, is a wooded site whose ancient tank was excavated in 1895 and which local tradition connects with the 'massacre of the Shakyas' by King Virudhaka (Vidudabha) of Kosala.

These sites are less visited and far less developed than Lumbini, and several remain archaeologically fragile — the Gotihawa pillar, for instance, has been reported in poor condition. For visitors, most of the Kapilvastu-area sites (Tilaurakot, Kudan, Gotihawa, Niglihawa, Sagarhawa, Araurakot) cluster within a short drive of Taulihawa, while Devadaha and Ramagrama lie to the east of Lumbini, making a full circuit a multi-day journey.

The practical hub for the circuit is Lumbini itself, well connected by road from Bhairahawa (Siddharthanagar) and Gautam Buddha International Airport. From Lumbini, the western Kapilvastu sites centre on Taulihawa, while Devadaha and Ramagrama lie to the east; a hired vehicle or organised pilgrimage tour is the usual way to link them, as public transport between the outlying sites is limited. Because most sites are open archaeological grounds rather than staffed monuments, visitors should respect excavation areas and check locally on access.

Within the UNESCO framework, only Lumbini is an inscribed World Heritage Site (added 1997). Tilaurakot (ref. 840) and Ramagrama (ref. 843) remain on Nepal's World Heritage Tentative List, the formal waiting list from which future nominations are drawn. Nepal has pursued inscription for Tilaurakot, but as of the 47th World Heritage Committee session in July 2025 the bid was deferred rather than approved, so the site keeps its Tentative-List status for now.

For pilgrims, the enduring draw is spiritual rather than administrative: Ramagrama as the one relic stupa believed to still hold the Buddha's remains, Tilaurakot as the city of his youth, Devadaha as his mother's home, and the Ashokan pillars as the earliest physical testimony to a Buddhist sacred landscape. Dates and figures on this page reflect the best available scholarship and government sources; some distances and datings are approximate and may be refined as excavation continues.