Day 38-39 (5th-6th March) Varanasi to Bodh Gaya

Days 38-39 (5th-6th March) Varanasi to Bodh Gaya

Our train arrived at Gaya Junction in the evening of the 5th March (my birthday: I’m 79) and a car was waiting for us to take us over the 16 kms to the Shangrila boutique homestay at Bodh Gaya. The next day we got a tuk-tuk to the Mahabodhi temple which was a major disappointment. We don’t have any pictures because a very tight security operation with dozens of soldiers waving their guns about required us to deposit our phones at the entrance. Which was bizarre because we couldn’t see the temple; it was entirely hidden from view by a dense web of bamboo scaffolding. We joined a long queue which was shuffling its way slowly into the temple, not helped by people queue-jumping. One man pushed his way in front of us and then demanded that we let his wife in. I got the impression that he understood the epithets that I hurled at him but he didn’t respond. The temple was just like every other Buddhist temple we have seen with a brightly-painted statue of the Buddha sitting before piles of offerings such as sweets, fruit, biscuits and, of course, money. The huge stomachs of the monks in saffron cloaks told us where this money is going. The temple is said to be the place where the Buddha received enlightenment in 528 BC while sitting under the Bodhi Tree. The descendent of a descendent (etc 10 times) of the tree can be seen and it is a rather unimpressive specimen. My neighbour Macleod has better trees in his garden. In the temple, we passed round the Vajrasana, a decorated oblong stone slab installed by Emperor Ashoka when he built the temple in 260 BC, and then proceeded out again.. Like Sarnath, Bodh Gaya is ruined by rampant commercialism with thousands of crappy little stalls selling tourist tat. The sheer number of people is overwhelming. We then went for a very pleasant meal and, having seen a sign to the “Giant Buddha Statue”, decided to give it a try. It is indeed giant, being 80 feet high but it was built in 1989 and its historical significance is bugger all.

This is the entrance to the Jagwanath Hindu temple at Mahabodhi. We weren’t allowed to take pics of the Buddhist temple.

Preparing offerings to Hindu Gods

Jagwanath (a form of Krishna) is commemorated at Puri in Odisha State. He is carried through the town on a gigantic wooden vehicle; the word jugernaut is derived from Jagwanath.

Giant Buddha Statue

Statue of one of Buddha’s first 10 disciples