On Buddha Purnima, India will once again invoke the Buddha as a teacher of compassion and peace. While that is fitting, it may not be sufficient. For a civilisation that holds Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar within its sacred geography, India still treats much of its Buddhist inheritance as a set of isolated stops rather than a single national mission. The Buddha was born in Lumbini, in present-day Nepal, but the defining arc of Buddhism, enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, the first sermon at Sarnath, mahaparinirvana at Kushinagar and the flowering of monastic learning at Nalanda, belongs decisively to the Indian landscape. If India wants to speak seriously of civilisational leadership, our Buddhist heritage must move from rhetoric to areas of concrete action.Buddhism is, at its philosophical core, a tradition that places direct experience above inherited doctrine. Take the Kalama Sutta’s injunction to test all teachings against personal reason and observation. When a pilgrim walks the ground where that teaching first rang, it represents an act of civilisational memory. India has the responsibility to honour that fully, not only for its cultural significance but for the economic opportunity. India recorded 99.5 lakh foreign tourists’ arrivals in 2024. The tourism ministry’s own data show that in 2023, the average foreign tourist spent about Rs 2.9 lakh in India, excluding international transport. Tourism supported an estimated 84.63 lakh jobs and accounted for 5.22 per cent of GDP. The ministry has also said Buddhist sites were drawing roughly 6 per cent of nationwide foreign tourist arrivals. Even if one treats that share as a broad yardstick rather than a fixed annual number, it points to a substantial base that India is still underserving. This is not niche tourism. It is a high-value spiritual market with room to grow.AdvertisementThe source markets are not hypothetical. In 2024, India received 7.3 lakh tourists from just four Buddhist-linked Asian countries: Sri Lanka, Japan, Thailand, and South Korea. These are not random tourists. For Japanese pilgrims, Bodh Gaya is associated with Zen and Pure Land traditions that shaped their civilisation. For Sri Lankans, the connection runs through the Mahavamsa, the 5th-century Pali chronicle, and the sacred gift of the Bodhi tree sapling, brought by Ashoka’s daughter, Sanghamitta, to Anuradhapura, where it still grows today as the world’s oldest historically recorded tree. For Thai and Korean pilgrims, India is the source of Theravada traditions that define their spiritual identities. Globally, Buddhists number in the hundreds of millions. Even if a small share of that community chose to make an India pilgrimage over time, the numbers would be transformational. India does not suffer from a lack of demand. It requires planning equal to the demand already waiting at its gates.To be fair, the state has not been idle. The Centre has sanctioned Buddhist projects for years under Swadesh Darshan and allied schemes, and recent approvals include a Rs 165.44 crore Buddhist Meditation and Experience Centre in Bodh Gaya and Rs 80.24 crore for integrated Buddhist tourism development in Shrawasti. The Union Budget 2026-27 has gone further, announcing a Buddhist circuit scheme for the Northeast and world-class training for 10,000 tour guides. Yet the Buddhist heartland still needs a sharper institutional instrument. With a BJP government in Uttar Pradesh and an NDA government currently holding a commanding majority in Bihar, the political window for joint execution exists. This is the moment to create a dedicated Buddhist Heritage and Pilgrimage Development Authority that can work across the Centre and the concerned states on land, conservation, transport, hospitality zones, visitor management and destination branding.The first test is access. Gaya Airport, the gateway to Bodh Gaya, still has a capacity constraint. The Airports Authority of India says another 100 acres is to be acquired for runway expansion, while the existing terminal can handle only 250 incoming and 250 outgoing passengers. Kushinagar International Airport has improved air access to the site of the Buddha’s mahaparinirvana, and theme-based tourist trains already connect key destinations. But the next leap is obvious: Bodh Gaya needs a genuine international airport ecosystem, Varanasi must be connected to Sarnath, Kushinagar, Shravasti, Rajgir and Nalanda through a special high-speed rail, and the circuit needs the full hospitality ladder; luxury and mid-range hotels and an emphasis on creating clean, encumbrance-free access to the main pilgrim sites if pilgrims are to stay longer and spend more.AdvertisementThe second test is ease. India already offers an e-Visa. What it now needs is a specialised Buddhist pilgrim visa, or at least a dedicated fast-track window, for group pilgrimages, monastic delegations and elderly devotees from Sri Lanka, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and other Buddhist countries. Over time, India and Nepal should explore coordinated facilitation so that Lumbini and the Indian circuit can be travelled as one sacred journey rather than as two bureaucratic systems. A serious Buddhist policy should also go beyond tourism and back knowledge: Fellowships in Pali and Buddhist studies, easier research access to major sites, minimal or waived entry barriers for bona fide pilgrims and scholars, and a stronger intellectual network anchored in places such as Nalanda, Varanasi and Bodh Gaya. None of this will work without local support, so the first gains must be visible to host communities.you may likeBuddha Purnima should, therefore, be a moment of honesty. The government has already used Buddhist relic diplomacy and heritage exhibitions to deepen ties with Asian partners; when holy relics travelled to Thailand, more than four million people paid their respects. That emotional reservoir is real. But symbolism must now be matched by plumbing, paving, lighting, guide training and humane visitor support. Buddhist sites and heritage go beyond UP and Bihar. States like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh offer much by way of a rich heritage of Buddhism. Even Darjeeling’s Observatory Hill, where the Mahakal temple stands on a site once associated with the Bhutia Busty monastery, remind us that India’s civilisational message is strongest when it is layered, confident and hospitable. The country that helped send Buddhism across Asia should now become its finest host.Buddhism’s genius was always its capacity for translation, not just linguistic, but cultural. As it moved from the Gangetic plain to Sri Lanka, it became Theravada. As it crossed the Himalayas into Tibet, it became Vajrayana. As it reached China, it absorbed Taoist sensibilities and became Chan, then Zen in Japan. In every case, it carried with it Indian concepts, Pali or Sanskrit vocabulary, the logic of Abhidharma, and the imagery of the Jataka tales, while adapting to new soils. India’s Buddhist circuit, at its best, can be the place where all these traditions come home simultaneously. That is not a tourism pitch. It is a civilisational reunion.The writer is a Member of Parliament and former Foreign Secretary of India