Book excerpt: Author, traveller and researcher Sunita Dwivedi recounts in this book the captivating tales of her travels to the Buddhist heritage sites of India. Taking on this arduous yet spiritually gratifying journey, she leaves no stone unturned in bringing us closer to the antiquities and mysteries of the ancient Buddhist sites-including the archaeological history of those built under the patronage of Asoka the Great, traversed by the devoted and fearless Chinese pilgrims and ambassadors, forgotten over time and rediscovered after centuries by colonial explorations and excavations. A delight for travellers and sightseers venturing into isolated Buddhist cultural geography, her wanderings account the length and breadth of the country-from the better known in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to the more interior ones in Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and even across the border into Lumbini and Tilaurakot in Nepal; from West Bengal and Odisha in the east to Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra in the west; and through Madhya Pradesh finally to the south of India. Offering an unforgettable kaleidoscope of awe-inspiring stupas, monasteries, paintings and sculptures, Buddhist Heritage Sites of India is a collation of complex and curious trajectories of a heritage that not only belongs to India but also to the world at large.