Around 220 pilgrims from Thailand have chosen the same path what Lord Buddha took to spread the message of peace around 2,500 years ago.

On Sunday, they began their journey towards Sarnath, around 15km from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, after an overnight halt at Kesariya.

Beginning their walk - with a mission to spread the message of Buddha - from Calcutta in first week of February, the pilgrims reached Bodhgaya around a fortnight ago. On February 15, they started from the place where Siddhartha attained enlightenment to become Buddha. After walking some 230km, the group reached Kesariya on Saturday. Kesariya is an important place for the pilgrims, as it has the highest Buddhist stupa in India.

After touching Kushinagar, Lumbini, Sravasti and Sangarakha, the group will reach Sarnath, where Buddha delivered his first public speech. They will have to cover at least 550km in 20 days to reach Sarnath.

"The monks would visit several places of Buddhist importance on way to Sarnath. We start at four every morning and walk till sunset. We start to cover as much distance as possible in a day," said group leader Achan Pawaya from Thailand.

A team of tourists from Myanmar is also travelling with the monks to provide on-road assistance to them if they need anything while on foot.

"A management team is also accompanying the Thai devotees with food materials on trucks. This management team has mostly people from Bihar," said Parmeshwar Ojha, a resident of Kesariya who is also president of Mahatma Buddha Sansthan, which works for the cause of Buddhists who visit Kesariya. He also promotes Kesariya stupa as a major tourist attraction.

Heaping praise on the Buddhist monks for undertaking the long walk, Ojha said: "We need to spread the preaching of Buddha among people across the globe and this walk would certainly help the cause."

The Buddha once stayed in Kesariya (then called Kesaputta). On that occasion, he preached the Kesaputtiya Suttas (a group of suttas preached to the Kalamas of Kesaputta), which include the Kalama Sutta. The inhabitants of Kesariya were the Kosalans and the Kalamas.

In Sarnath, when Gautama Buddha found his five former companions, he taught them, they understood and as a result they also became enlightened. At that time the Sangha, the community of the enlightened ones, was founded. The sermon Buddha gave to the five monks was his first sermon, called the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta.