Bodhgaya
is one of the sites most crowned for the Buddhists of the whole world. Here
cross of the Japanese, the Chinese, the Vietnameses, Sri-Lankais, Thailandais,
Tibétains, and a also number of Westerners.
To arrive at Bodega, one can travel by the train (Delhi-Calcutta line) until Gaya (to 15 km of Bodhgaya), then a bus or a rickshaw (not very practical). By the road, Bodhgaya is to 250 km of Varanasi (Bénarès), that is to say approximately 7 to 8 hours of road. It is disadvised taking the road of night in Bihar, for reasons of safety. The airport is located at Patna (100 km).
The agglomeration of Bodhgaya is developed little. What strikes more, except the temple of Mahaboddhi, they are the multiple temples of religious communities of Buddhist countries which have settled here for a few decades.
The temple of Mahabodhi, at the center of the village, is located at the place even where the Buddha reached the Illumination. It was built between the 1 er and the 3 2nd century on the site of an old temple set up under the reign of the emperor Ashoka (3 2nd century before our era), then restored at the 19 2nd century. It is a pyramidal, covered with a worked stone facing, high brick tower 55 meters. Four small turrets mark the angles. The interior of the sanctuary shelters a large statue, equipped with gold sheets, of the Buddha at the time of the Awakening.
Just with the back of the monument, the tree of Bodhi (a ficus religiosa) would be downward original tree under which the Buddha meditated, and it is this tree which one sees nowadays. On the ground, right in front of the tree, a worked stone plate (dating from the time of Ashoka), surmounted by a hood of fabric, is called the "Diamond Throne". It is the exact site where the Buddha meditated.
The
temple is surrounded by a stone balustrade with certain elements dating
as far as the from the the time of Ashoka.
One observes there also some statues of Hindu divinities, like Shiva or Ganesh, which makes it possible to learn that these places of the temple of Mahabodhi are under the joint responsibility of Buddhist authorities and vishnouïtes.