Hajipur is a small but important town for Buddhist pilgrims. Located at just 11 km from Patna, the capital city of Bihar, Hajipur was a small village named as Ukkacala, during Buddha's period. In Ukkacala, Lord Buddha is believed to teach one of his famous discourses, the Cula Goplalaka Sutta, from the Middle Length Discourses. Hajipur is also famous as the place where Ananda's ashes were enshrined. Ananda was the famous disciple and personal attendant of Lord Buddha for twenty years.

According to legends, when Ananda realized that his passing away is near, he headed north from Rajgir. When the Buddhist King Ajata Satru heard of this he decided to meet and urge him to stay. When people of Vaishali heard about Ananda's coming, they flocked on both sides of the river Ganges and were crying and imploring him to come to their side. So as not to disappoint either party and to avoid the possibility of conflict, Ananda rose into the air and disappeared into a ball of flames. It's said that half of his ashes fell on one side of the river and half on the other where two stupas were built. Though, the stupa built on the south bank has long been washed away by the river, the one on the northern bank is now a grassy mound with a Hindu temple named as Ramchandra Mandir. Though the stupa no longer exists here, the importance of the place can't be undermined on this ground. A tour to Hajipur promises to be unique experience for Buddhist pilgrims as they can see the banks of sacred Ganges where Ananda disappeared as flames.

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