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Bodhgaya, State of Bihar, Site of the Buddha's Enlightenment Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 |
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The main pilgrim and tourist season in Bodhgaya lasts from around the beginning of November to the end of January. The legendary heat and dust of the Gangetic Plains and then the rainy season keeps away all but the most determined at other times of the year. Even in January temperatures can go up into the eighties during the heat of the day, but early mornings are cool, with temperatures sometimes dropping into the low fifties just before the sun comes up. As one of the four places connected with his life that the Buddha himself suggested his followers should visit, Bodhgaya has a long and hallowed history as a pilgrimage site. From the time the Buddha shed his is earthly coil (483 BC, or thereabouts) pilgrims began flocking here from all over Buddhist India, and beginning from about 50 BC up to the end of the thirteenth century AD determined devotees journeyed here from China, Vietnam, Burma, Sri Lanka, Sumatra, Nepal, Tibet, Thailand and even what is now Kazakhstan. With the Moslem invasion of India in the 1190s, the destruction of many Buddhist holy places, and the subsequent decline of the Buddhist faith in India the stream of pilgrims slowly began to dry up. Although attacked and looted several times by marauding Moslem soldiers the Mahabodhi Temple and the adjacent monastery complex survived the onslaught that completely destroyed other centers of Buddhism like the famous Nalanda Monastery near current-day Rajgir. Bodhgaya continued, albeit on a much smaller scale, to attract pilgrims and function as a center of Buddhist learning up to at least the beginning of the 15th century, but from then on the temple complex was abandoned and fell into disrepair and near ruin. Finally in the 1880s Alexander Cunningham, then Director General of the Archaeological Survey, realizing the archeological and historical significance of the Bodhgaya ruins and aware of the British Raj's responsibilities as the trustee of India's cultural heritage, intervened, and at his insistence archeological excavations and extensive repairs and restoration of the temple were carried out. Still, when a young, devout Sri Lankan Buddhist named Anagarika Dharmapala arrived in Bodhgaya in 1891 he was appalled by the condition of the temple complex, which was still used by local people as a garbage dump and outdoor toilet, and chagrined that there were no Buddhist monks or even caretakers in attendance at the temple itself. Like so many pilgrims before and after him he entered the temple, approached the Inner Vajrasana, and knelt down before it. "As soon as I touched with my forehead the Vajrasana a sudden impulse came to my mind. It prompted me to stop here and take care of this sacred spot-so sacred that nothing in this world is equal to this place where Prince Sakya Sinha gained Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree. Later, while meditating in the temple, he had a further brainstorm. He would, he decided, devote the rest of his life to restoring the temple complex to its former glory as a Buddhist pilgrimage site. In main opponent in this was a local man known as the Mahant, the descendant of a Hindu swami who had settled in Bodhgaya several centuries before. Eventually the Mahants came to consider the Mahabodhi Temple and surrounding grounds as their own private property. Now a rich and powerful landlord, the current Mahant, who lived in a huge compound just east of the temple, realized that the restored temple, potentially a magnet for Buddhists from all other the world, was a cash cow that could be lucratively milked and had no intention of relinquishing his control over it. Thus started a decades-long legal wrangle between the Mahant and Anagarika Dharmapala. Attempting to gain support for the revival of the temple and ultimately its control by Buddhists, Anagarika Dharmapala founded the Mahabodhi Society and the Mahabodhi Journal, the first international Buddhist publication, and embarked on a world-wide campaign to publicize Bodhgaya and other Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India, even travelling to the United States to attend the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893. Although he devoted the rest of his life to the cause when Anagarika Dharmapala died in 1933 the Mahant still controlled the Mahabodhi Temple and Buddhists visited there at his forbearance. The Mahabodhi Society lived on, however (as it still does; its current headquarters are just down the street from the entrance to the temple grounds), and due to its efforts and the support of Mahatma Gandhi, Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore, and other prominent Indians, in 1949 control of the temple and surrounding grounds was placed in the hands of a standing committee made of up four Hindus and four Buddhists, and the legal right of Buddhists to worship in the temple was finally recognized.
Now, some fifty years later, Bodhgaya has become a standard stop for Buddhist pilgrims in India and tourists on cultural excursions. That is not to say that Bihar, the notoriously poor and corruption-ridden state in which Bodhgaya is located, is particularly visitor-friendly. The nearest airports are in Patna, the capital of Bihar, 70 miles away, and in Varanasi, 145 miles to the west in Uttar Pradesh state, and the roads connecting these two cities with Bodhgaya are horrifically potholed and often jammed bumper-to-bumper for miles with exhaust-belching lorries and other transport. The mainline of the Delhi-Calcutta railroad pasts through Gaya, just ten miles from Bodhgaya, but all visitors are emphatically warned not to travel between Gaya and Bodhgaya after dark, when this section of road is beleaguered by particularly rapacious bandits. The town Bodhgaya itself, although said to have a population of 25,000 (this figure apparently includes neighboring villages) is actually quite small, with most of the local businesses-those catering to the inhabitants and not to visitors- huddled on one main street running along the bank of Neranjara River. The rest of the town, running westward from the river for about half a mile, caters almost entirely to pilgrims and tourists. Many of the Buddhist lands of Asia, including Tibet, China, Burma, Thailand, Sikkim, Bhutan, Vietnam, Nepal, and Japan maintain monasteries, temples, and guest houses here, and there are numerous hotels, guesthouses, and restaurants, most catering to the frugal pilgrim and low-budget traveler. |
Up-to-date News about Bodhgaya
The Mahabodhi Temple, site of the Buddha's Enlightenment, from the main entrance at the eastern side of the temple complex Yes, the Temple has it own Website
Mahabodhi Temple from the southeast
Mahabodhi Temple from the southwest
Mahabodhi Temple from the southeast
The Outer Khora (top) and the Inner Khora (middle)
Ceremonial Gateway to the Temple courtyard, probably datinng from the 8th century AD
Symbolic footprints of the Buddha
Entrance to the Mahabodhi Temple
Statue of the Buddha to the left of the entranceway
The enclose containing the Outer Vajrasana, or Diamond seat, just behind the main temple |
