Buddha Gaya (Bodhgaya - बोधगया)

Mahābodhi Mahāvihāra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is an ancient, but rebuilt and restored Buddhist temple in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India, marking the location where the Lord Buddha attained enlightenment.

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The Mahabodhi Temple

The most sacred and in many respects one of the most beautiful temples in the Buddhist world.

The pilgrims enter the temple compound by the east gate and see the temple rising up before them.

In the entrance on the left side there is a large bronze bell. The inscription on this bell says that it was especially cast by King Mindon Min of Burma and taken to Bodh Gaya by the mission he sent there in 1877.

Just beyond the gateway and to the left is a small temple with a portico, the pillars of which are delicately carved. Under the portico is a large round stone carved with footprints of the type used in early centuries as a symbol of the Buddha.

Now we stand in front of the great Mahabodhi Temple. The temple consists of a rectangular base with a chamber (garbha), a large inward sloping spire (sikhara) rising from its center and four smaller spires at the corners.

This main shrine is built on the very place where the Buddha attained enlightenment, the place variously called ‘the Diamond Throne,’ ‘the Victory Throne of all Buddhas’ or ‘the Navel of the Earth.’

This is where the prince Siddhartha defeated the Mara and his army of daemons and became the fully enlightened one, the awakened one. It was while seated here that ‘vision arose, knowledge arose, wisdom arose, understanding arose, light arose’ in the Buddha at the dawn of the Vesak full moon day in 528 BCE (588 BC).

Buddhist literature says that this is the first place to emerge when the universe is born and this is the last place that will get destroyed when the universe is destroyed. And this is where all the past Buddhas have attained enlightenment and where all the future Buddha’s will attain enlightenment.

The statue originally placed on the Vajrasana was called the Mahabodhi Image and was the most famous statue in the ancient world. However, the Mahabodhi Image was destroyed long ago. The statue we see today was found in the Mahant's compound and moved to its present position. Dating from the late 10th century, this statue is 5 and a half feet high and shows the Buddha in the earth-touching gesture.

On the back side of this statue is the Bodhi Tree.

The Buddha in his last sermon, the Maha Parnibbana Sutta has mentioned about four places a devotee should visit and look upon with feelings of reverence. This place where the Tathagata Buddha became fully enlightened in unsurpassed, supreme Enlightenment is one of those four places.

The Bodhi Tree

At the back of the Mahabodhi Temple is the Bodhi Tree. On the night the Siddhartha Bodhisattva attained enlightenment, he sheltered under the branches of the Bodhi tree. Henceforth the Ficus religiosa is called Bodhi Tree or Bodhirukkha by Buddhists. Bodhi refers to awakening.

The present Bodhi Tree was planted in the 19th century and and is believed to be a 5th generation descendent of the original Bodhi Tree where the Buddha attained enlightenment.

Several previous trees have died or been destroyed and the legend says that it again miraculously regrew each time.

The King Asoka's daughter, Arahath Sanghamitra Theri, took a branch from the Bodhi Tree to Sri Lanka. The tree that grew from that branch still grows in the ancient Sri Lankan capital at Anuradhapura.

The Outer Vajrasana At the foot of the Bodhi Tree is the oldest object that can still be viewed at Bodh Gaya - a large rectangular slab of stone. This stone may have originally been placed over the Vajrasana inside the temple.

The Gautama Buddha spent the next seven weeks in the vicinity of the Bodhi Tree experiencing the joy of enlightenment and contemplating the implications of the truths he had realized.

The Buddha, the Fully Enlightened One, after the enlightenment continued to sit under the Bodhi Tree for seven days ‘experiencing the joy of liberation.’

Animisa Chaitya

To the right of the path leading to the main entrance of the temple and on the top of the embankment, is a temple with a single spire, similar to that on the Mahabodhi Temple.

This temple is known as the Animisa Chaitya, the Unblinking Shrine, and is said to mark the place where the Buddha spent the second week staring without blinking at the Bodhi Tree out of gratitude for the shelter it had given him.

Inside the temple is a particularly beautiful statue of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva holding a lotus in his left hand and with a lion at his right side

Ratana cankama Chaitya

Leaving the Bodhi Tree and continuing around the temple, the pilgrim comes to Ratanacankama Chaitya, the Jewel Promenade Shrine. This structure marks the place where the Buddha walked up and down in the 3rd week after his enlightenment. the Buddha saw through his mind’s eye that the devas in the heavens were not sure whether he had attained enlightenment or not. The Buddha built a golden bridge in the air to walk across, proving to the devas that he was truly enlightened.

The lotus flower stone sculptures on the platform symbolizes the lotus flower blooming beneath the feet of the Buddha.

Ratanaghara Chaitya In the north-west corner of the gardens round the temple is the Ratanaghara Chaitya, the Jewel House Shrine, of which only the walls survive. The original shrine here was said to have been built for the Buddha by the devas, and the Buddha spent the fourth week after his enlightenment here contemplating the Abhidhamma.

His mind and body were so purified that six coloured rays came out of his body — blue, yellow, red, white, orange and a mixture of these five. Today these six colors make up the Buddhist flag.

This monument at the eastern entrance represents the Ajapala Banyan Tree, where the Lord Buddha spent the fifth week in meditation after the enlightenment. The actual Ajapala tree is across the Neranjana river. It is the same place where Sujata offered milk rice to Bodhisattva before the enlightenment.

Muchalinda Lake

The Buddha spent the 6th week at the foot of a mucalinda tree (Pterosspermum acerifolium). While there a great rainstorm began and the naga Mucalinda a cobra curled itself around the Buddha seven times and opened its hood over him.

This tree disappeared centuries ago but the tank on whose banks it grew is still there. The real Mucalinda Tank is actually a shallow muddy pool about one and a half kilometer further south, in the village of Muchalin.

During the seventh week after enlightenment, the Gautama Buddha meditated under the Rajayatana tree. At the end of meditation, two merchants, Thapassu and Bhallika offered rice flakes and honey to the Buddha and took refuge in Budda and Dhamma. There was no Sangha then.

On the eighth week when the Lord Buddha was at the Ajapala Banyan Tree, Brahma Sahampati appeared to him and persuaded him to preach the doctrine, in spite of the difficulty of the task.

The Gautama Buddha accepted that invitation and then he set off for Sarnath or the Baranesa Isipathana Migadaya to meet the Pancha vaggiya Bhikkus, the five companions who helped the Siddhartha Bodhisttva before the enlightenment.

Votive Stupas

Outside the railing, There are hundreds of votive stupas and statues in and around the gardens. These stupas said to contain the relics of Arhants.

According to Huien Tsiang Bhikku’s records, this stupa contains relics of the Buddha.

The walls of the Temple contains images of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and deities.

Asoka's pillars

Just beyond the south-east corner of the temple is a section of a huge pillar. The Bharhut relief and the Kumarhur Plaque both indicate that one of Asoka's pillars crowned with an elephant capital originally stood just outside the temple railing to the right of its east gateway.

At the north end of the courtyard, there is a series of finely carved stones, depicting scenes from the Buddha’s life.

These are some photos taken at night.

The Maha Bodhi Temple gates open at 5am and close at 9pm. Cell phones and other electronic devices are prohibited in the temple complex. But the Cameras are allowed and the charge for a camera is Rs 100 per day.

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