 2500 years ago, the newly enlightened Siddhartha Gautama met up with a few of his ascetic friends who were shocked that he had given up self-denial as a means to transcend the human experience. Ascetism had been an unquestioned means of doing this for a minimum of a thousand years. He had a lot to explain. To their credit, they sat and heard him out in Sarnath, “the place of deer”, about 10 km north of Varanasi.
In the eastern part of an area of the ruins of centuries of monasteries and monuments is that big reconstructed stupa. It marks the spot where it is said that first sermon set the wheel in motion. Things were never the same again for those ascetics and, arguably, anybody else. They listened, and a few more people came. Then a few more.
Not much remains of the structures in Deer Park. After the patronage of Ashoka and the Mauryan Dynasty he founded, Buddhism went into decline, though not without Hindu mythology incorporating the Buddha into Hinduism as the 8th incarnation of Krishna. The real end to Sarnath came at the hands of invading Muslims who used the crumbling buildings’ stone and brick as building material. What you see there now is heavily restored, and mostly that is just foundations. There is a broken pillar of Ashoka’s, warning against schism, and few other artifacts. That stupa was rebuilt with about 25% original bits, painstakingly placed where the ararchaeologists think they belong. To the north is a deer park, where you can walk in peace and, maybe, have a little moment of insight yourself. And, yes, they’ve put some deer in Deer Park.
Outside the site you see about what you would expect. There are, I think, nine temples. Right inside the site boundry is a Jain temple. There are also dozens of souvenir stands and shops, food and drink stands, packs of rickshaw drivers, Indian and “Continental” (meaning western, after a fashion) restaurants, beggars, etc., the same as you see in any place like this. All in all, I’d say this place seems like it would be at least an intersting place for anyone. Surprisingly, though many thousands of tourists go to Varanasi, few go to Sarnath. Aside from that big group of people listening to a monk shown in the second picture, I’ll bet not more than about 50 people went inside the site for the 3 hours I was there. There were only a couple of sleeping homeless Indians in the deer park. Peaceful is good, I guess.