The Mahaparinirvana Temple at Kushinagar marks the place where the Buddha died and attained final nirvana. Inside is a reclining statue of the Buddha about six metres long, carved from a single block of red sandstone in the 5th century and found during excavations in 1876. The present temple was built in 1956. Ruins of monasteries surround it, and a stupa stands behind.

The Ramabhar Stupa at Kushinagar is believed to stand on the spot where the body of the Buddha was cremated. The large brick mound, about fifteen metres high, is the remnant of a stupa known in ancient texts as Mukutbandhan Chaitya. It is set in a quiet park about a kilometre and a half from the Mahaparinirvana Temple.

The Gorakhnath temple in Gorakhpur is the chief seat of the Nath tradition of yogis and is named after the medieval saint Gorakhnath, who is believed to have meditated here. The large complex has a white temple with a tall spire, a pond and many smaller shrines. A month-long fair, the Khichdi Mela, begins on Makar Sankranti each January.

Maghar is where the 15th-century poet-saint Kabir chose to spend his last days, defying the belief that dying here denied salvation. His Hindu and Muslim followers each raised a memorial, so a samadhi temple and a mazar stand side by side in the same compound, a lasting symbol of his teaching. The site by the Ami River is peaceful year-round and busiest during the Maghar festival in January.

Piprahwa is an ancient Buddhist site near the Nepal border, identified by many scholars with Kapilavastu, where the Buddha grew up. In 1898 a stupa here yielded a casket inscribed as containing relics of the Buddha of the Shakya clan, one of the most important such finds ever made. The excavated brick stupa and the foundations of monasteries can be seen in a well-kept park.

Devi Patan Temple at Tulsipur is counted among the Shakti Peethas, the shrines associated with the goddess Sati. It is closely linked with the Nath tradition of Gorakhnath, and its mahants still follow that order. The temple draws pilgrims from across the Terai and from Nepal, especially during the Chaitra Navratri fair in spring, when the town fills with devotees.

Jetavana at Shravasti was the monastery where the Buddha spent more rainy seasons than anywhere else, said to be twenty-four, after it was given to him by the merchant Anathapindika. The excavated park contains the brick foundations of monasteries, stupas and the Gandhakuti, the Buddha's own hut. Pilgrims meditate beneath the Anandabodhi tree, grown from a cutting of the Bodhi tree.