Bodhgaya

Mahabodhi Temple Complex, Bodhgaya

Situated on the banks of the Falgu River in the northeastern state of Bihar, Bodhgaya is a place revered by both Hindu and Buddhist faiths. Several monasteries and temples dot this tranquil and spiritual town. Ghats (steps) and temples line the riverbanks, the most popular being Vishnupad Temple, where there is a footprint of Vishnu in a block of basalt. The town is sacred to Hindus who make the pilgrimage here to perform the Pind Daan Pooja, where they offer small balls of flour to bring salvation to departed souls.

The documented history of Bodhgaya dates back to the birth of Gautama Buddha, and about 15 km from the town is the ancient Mahabodhi Temple Complex, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where Prince Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree and later became known as the Buddha. A descendant of this sacred tree still flourishes today, rooted in the same soil amongst the temple’s beautiful gardens, which include a lotus pond. Gradually, the surrounding towns (Rajgir, Nalanda, Vaishali, Patliputra) became a citadel of knowledge for the ancient world.

For Buddhists, Bodhgaya is the most important of the four main pilgrimage sites related to the life of the Buddha, the other three being Kushinagar, Lumbini, and Sarnath. Stretching north from Bodhgaya are the Barabar Caves, the oldest surviving rock-cut caves in India, featured in E.M Forster’s ‘A Passage to India’. Rajgir is the ancient capital of the Magadha kingdom, where there are two rock-cut caves which were favoured by the Buddha and Jain pilgrims. Nalanda was an ancient centre of scholarly learning and is said to have been home to India’s oldest university, where the Buddha lectured in a mango grove. Vaishali is an ancient city, now an archaeological site, which was the birthplace of the Jain Lord Mahavira and also where Gautama Buddha delivered his last sermon before his death in 483 BC.

Seeking "enlightenment" Buddah spent 6 years fasting in a cave, and emerged after recieving rice from a local woman. He then realised htat there was a "middle way" to enlightenment rathen than the years of fasting. He then went to where the "budha tree" is now and soon reached enlightenment. For the remaining 40 or 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have travelled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and southern Nepal, teaching a diverse range of people: from nobles to servants, ascetics and householders.

The English term enlightenment is the Western translation of various Buddhist terms, most notably bodhi and vimutti. The abstract noun bodhi means the knowledge or wisdom, or awakened intellect, of a Buddha The verbal root budh- means "to awaken", and its literal meaning is closer to awakening. The term enlightenment has the Western connotation of general insight into transcendental truth or reality. What exactly constituted the Buddha's awakening is unknown. It may have involved the knowledge that liberation was attained by the combination of mindfulness and dhyāna, applied to the understanding of the arising and ceasing of craving. The relation between dhyana and insight is a core problem in the study of Buddhism, and is one of the fundamentals of Buddhist practice.

Several Buddhist temples and monasteries have been built by the people of Tibet, Mongolia, Nepal, Japan, Korea, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Sikkim, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Bhutan, and China in a wide area around the Mahabodhi Temple. These buildings reflect their respective countries' architectural and decorative styles. The statue of the Buddha in the Chinese temple is 200 years old, and was brought from China. Japan's Nippon temple is shaped like a pagoda. The Myanmar (Burmese) temple is also pagoda-shaped and is reminiscent of Bagan. The Thai temple has a sloping, curved roof covered with golden tiles and contains a massive bronze statue of the Buddha. Next to the Thai temple is a 25-metre statue of the Buddha within a garden that has existed for over 100 years

Tuesday, October 14, Calcutta,

We left the ship and had a 20 minute drive to the hotel where we were greeted royally like long lost friends and then shown up to the presidential suite, an upgrade this was really over the top with a dining room set up for five and various washrooms pantries et cetera and a sitting room with access to a balcony the whole length of the building. Although this had large chairs on it, the cushions were stacked up under an overhang and dusty damp plastic bags floating in water so that was not too successful but they were really nice views all around one side being the zoo another side being in the hotels wedding area and then the swimming pool on the other side It took David a long time to get the Wi-Fi onto our two phones and iPads as it was a different Wi-Fi for the presidential suite to the rest of the hotel all very complicated.

I went for a gorgeous swim, detracted slightly by the noise of demolition or erection of scaffolding at one end of the pool. Then we went up for afternoon tea. in the club lounge before reading more in the suite then before seven we went up to the club lounge again and had some, for me, slightly spicy Tapas but they then got some pleasant chicken sent out from the main Main kitchen. This was followed by a little cheese and a delightful piece of curd cheesecake. Also some Jacobs Creek wine. After this, we had an early night about 9:30 pm, this seeming to be the norm for this holiday.

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Wednesday, October 15 . Calcutta to Bodhgaya

We had breakfast at seven and we were ready for the taxi to the airport at 7:45. This we reached in well under an hour and it did not take us too long to get through check-in using the senior citizens queue, and security as well. Here again the army wanted to look in many of our possessions but we’re more efficient than we were on boarding the plane in Delhi 10 days earlier. There was a guide, Mimuk, to meet us at the airport from Wild Frontiers (the travel agent we were using) we were soon speeding away through Gaya and then into Bodhgaya. This had a population of 5 million but apparently, we learnt later. this was the entire agricultural region surrounding the city and the city itself seemed to us very small.

Indigo flight

We arrived at the Hyatt hotel in a really rural area before noon. We were not over impressed and it seemed more like a three star hotel than a four or five star one. There was no swimming pool and no chairs outside in any of the vaguely garden areas. Plenty of seating areas, all greyish, though around reception and a couple of water fountains features. Room 301 was large and had a large balcony overlooking Rice Fields, some hovels and far beyond several temples. The guide was insistent that we had time to relax although we told him we did not need any and it turned out later that he did not realise we have been in India for almost 2 weeks and had spent all the previous day relaxing in Calcutta. Anyway, we got him to come back at 5 pm to give us an hours tour of some of the temples, before we would visit them in more detail on the next morning at 9 am, prompt!

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Rice fields around the hotel		.. and the giant Buddha could be seen with telephoto

So we spent the afternoon reading our iPads, wondering up to the fifth floor to look at the view in the opposite direction which was truly magnificent, but no rooms had balconies in this direction. We obtained two chairs for our own large balcony so that we could sit outside there. We had an interesting hour with the guide at 5 pm, not quite learning how one became a guru and what the difference was between a yogi and a guru. We saw the big Buddha had his 10 disciples flanking his statue One of the interesting things about the tour company with the guide was that he had to keep taking photographs of us to send to his boss to prove that he had given us what he was meant to have given us. He took photos of our garlands and the various places that we visited. We will see how this continues on the morrow.

Back at the hotel we investigated the restaurant but this was lacking any ambiance and we reckoned there were only 10 rooms occupied in the hotel at most, so we snacked in our room watched television for awhile and once again had an early night.

Thurs 16 Oct Bodhgaya

After a reasonable breakfast we were picked up at 9 am prompt. We went first to the temple complex where the Buddha got his night enlightenment over a period of seven weeks. There was a huge temple and stupa, very impressive, and on the outside of which was the tree on which he had sat or, rather the 40th generation of that tree. We then visited various other sites in the complex where he had got his other first, second third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh week of enlightenment.. This all took about two hours

The Bodhi Tree ( meaning "awakening" or "enlightenment") is a sacred fig located within the Buddhist Mahabodhi Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Bodh Gaya. According to Buddhist tradition, it was under a Bo tree located at this site that Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual teacher who later became known as the Buddha, attained enlightenment around the 5th century BC. In Buddhist art and iconography, the Bodhi Tree is commonly depicted with its characteristic heart-shaped leaves, a feature of Ficus religiosa that has come to symbolize wisdom and spiritual awakening. Clearly the original tree no longer survives, but its descendants have been venerated for more than two millennia.

To get a larger photo, click on a thumbnail below

To get a larger photo, click on a thumbnail below

We drove on and took a daytime photo of the huge Buddha, before stopping at a café for a fruit smoothie, but all they seemed to be able to get us was a chocolate smoothie, so we gave up everything else was "off". Chris had requested that we come back to the hotel for an hour as a break after the morning activities, but was told we would be too far away from the hotel to make this practical, but in fact we were less than five minutes drive from it all very odd.

We then drove out into the country which we enjoyed viewing and over a river and through vegetable and ricefields. There were many lowest caste villages were they were all very poor and seemed to do an immense amount of colourful washing . We stopped at the tree where the Buddha had also stopped en route from a cave where he had meditated for six years without eating anything!. Then onto the cave itself: that was mayhem as so many locals around pushing sticks and water and all sorts of things onto us. It was apparently about 400 yards of the mountain that this cave was situated and we decided that we could not take all these people crowding in around us over what might become slightly difficult terrain. I was only wearing sandals. So we told the guide that we would do without seeing the cave. Begging was ripe all around particularly with the children.

The Sujata stupa was dedicated to the milkmaid Sujata, from the village of Bakraur, who is said to have fed Gautama Buddha milk and rice at this spot as he was sitting under a Banyan tree, thereby ending his seven years of fasting and asceticism, and allowing him to attain illumination through the Middle Way :there was also a temple and memorial to her near the stupa

We then had a pleasant drive back into town. Here we visited probably eight different temples, shoes off at each one of them. we thought the Thai temple was the most beautiful but the Tibetan and Bhutan ones were also very interesting. Eventually we decided we were templed out, particularly as it was often really hot inside the temples and it had been a long day. So we were returned to the hotel by soon after 4 pm. After a shower, we had a roll to eat with some chicken and some pear and kiwi. Then David experimented with sending photos from his glasses onto both iPad and phones: this was necessary as we were not allowed cameras in the enlightenment complex.

At 7:30 pm we went down to the restaurant and were surprised to find it very crowded with a big group who were also having a party in the function room, so different from the few customers the hotel had the previous night. We had a risotto between us and some banana milkshakes, quite adequate then back to the room and a little more reading before and not quite so early bed time.

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