This collection of source materials identifies places associated with the Buddha's residence bymeans of the set phrase at the beginning of a sutra, "I have heard that on one occasion, the Buddhawas staying at . . . with a great company of bhikkhus", and places where he preached through hisactivities at his destinations, as well as places mentioned in the Vinaya, which does not employany set phrase such as used to open a sutra. The materials come from the five Pali Nikāyas andthe Pali Vinaya, and from works in Chinese translation, including the five  gamas (including thealternative translation of the Saṃyuktāgama) and the five Vinaya collections (Sifen lü [Vinayain Four Divisions], Wufen lü [Vinaya in Five Divisions], Shisong lü [Vinaya in Ten Recitations],Mohesengqi lü [Vinaya of the Mahāsaṃghika School] and Genben shuoyiqie youbu lü [Vinaya ofthe Mūlasarvāstivādin School]). The place names collected have been tabulated (appended to thisarticle), showing where, with whom and what the Buddha and his disciples did.

The table has five columns: Source material (division, sutra number, sutra name, volume, page);route; people appearing in the text; account; and related sutras. The following information is given:

1. The name of the source material and its location (division, sutra number, sutra name, volume,page) is recorded. "Division" refers to the category of the scripture as it was edited - the Sutras andVinaya in Pali or Chinese translation. Pali texts are numbered according to the PTS (old) edition,and those in Chinese translation according to the modern standardized Taisho edition. Volume andpage numbers are also according to the PTS edition for the Pali texts and the Taisho edition for theChinese texts. A ※ mark appearing before a text name indicates that Sakyamuni does not makean appearance there. In this case, "residence" and "place of preaching" refer to the activities of hisdisciples.2. "Route" refers to the places Sakyamuni passed through mentioned in a particular sutra.3. "People appearing in the text" gives a list of the names of those appearing in real time in aparticular text.4. "Account" contains information about: (a) the outline of the teachings given by Sakyamuni orthe sermons given by his disciples and (b) happenings associated with the disciples, centred onSakyamuni (who they visited, if they became sick, when they renounced the world, when theybecame arhats, their death and entry into Nirvana), plus an outline of historical events as laid downin the Vinaya.5. "Related sutras" refers to sutras whose content is the same in Pali and Chinese translation butwhere the places of residence and preaching are different. Their names, together with division,number, volume, page, are given, and the place names recorded in them are listed. However,correspondences are confined to mutual connections between the Pali and Chinese texts.In the Magadha section, information is given about its capital (Rājagaha/ Rājagṛha) and the areasurrounding it, Nālandā and Pāṭaligāma (Pāṭaliputta/ Pāṭaligrāmaka) to the north, and Gayā andUruvelā to the south-west, as well as other places in Magadha whose location cannot be confirmed.Within each category, there are further subdivisions for cities, settlements, monasteries and gardens(parks), mountains and caves, rivers and ponds, and sacred places (see Contents for details).