Deekshabhoomi is one of the most significant Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India and the most important site in the Dalit Buddhist movement. It marks the exact spot where Dr. B.R. Ambedkar — jurist, economist, and principal drafter of the Indian constitution — converted to Buddhism along with an estimated 600,000 followers on 14 October 1956, in the largest mass religious conversion in recorded history.
The centrepiece is a large white stupa, one of the biggest in the world, with a diameter of 62 metres and a height of around 30 metres. The interior of the dome houses a meditation hall, a library, and a museum documenting Ambedkar's life and the history of the Dalit movement. The complex also contains a relic of the Buddha. The site is especially crowded around Ambedkar Jayanti (14 April) and Dhamma Chakra Pravartan Din (14 October), when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims arrive from across Maharashtra and beyond. Even on ordinary days it is a place of quiet purpose — people reading, meditating, and studying under the trees.