The Ice Flow

By Red Sox Steve

Bodhgaya

The train ride to Gaya was relatively quick and easy, but still late; if you've been reading all about my trip, you'll understand why I appreciated it so much. My ultimate destination was a town neighboring Gaya to its south, called BodhGaya, which has no train station. Therefore, all who want to visit Bodhgaya and are going by train, head to Gaya, and take an autorickshaw for an hour or so ride. I found a place to get some food after settling in, checked my email, made a few calls and went to bed.

Bodhgaya isn't very large. Outside of tourism, there is no commercial activity there, and only a few roads. After being in noisy, crowded cities for a couple of weeks, the silence around me was deafening. One main street was lined with restaurants and a few hotels and on the way here from Gaya, I passed a military installation - there is lots of extra space to go around. If it's so small, and there is so little to do, why does it get visitors from around the world, coming in droves to spend days, weeks, months or even years here?

In 623 BCE ("Before Common Era"), in Lumbini, Nepal, a Kshatriya prince named Siddhārtha Gautama was born into a royal Brahmin family. When Gautama was 29, he wanted to experience life beyond the palace walls where he had spent his upbringing. During the early part of his exploration of the outside world, he found that life for his subjects was unpleasant and depressing - he saw death, disease, aging and begging for the very first time. Because the prince was so disturbed by these things, he sought to escape his kingdom and live like a beggar. After practicing under teachers who exposed him to the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mutiliation, he sought an intermediate state of being, which came to be known as "The Middle Way". He had become emaciated throughout his journey, and, while seated under a tree to rest, was offered food from a woman in the village who had mistaken him for an answer to a prayer. Gautama stayed under the tree for 49 days, until he had attained Enlightenment, and came to be known as the Buddha (the "Awakened One" or the "Enlightened One"). This tree is in Bodh Gaya and is known as the Bodhi Tree. Due to its Buddhist significance, a temple called the Mahabodhi Temple was constructed next to it and is the primary desination for Buddhists from all over the world.

I woke up the morning after my arrival and headed out - my hotel was a short walk to the temple, so after getting something to eat, I made it there in no time. I paid the admission fee, took off my shoes at the entrance, and went right in. Immediately, I was struck by the detail on the outer walls of the main temple. There are carvings and designs starting just above the base all the way to the top, and the entire structure is made of brick. The temple was constructed in the 5th century CE, after having been designated a sacred spot around 250 BCE by the Gupta emperor Asoka; due to decay and disrepair over the years, it had to be restored in the 19th century, by the British. Inside the temple, there is a shrine to the Buddha - like many depictions of the Buddha around the world, he is seated cross-legged, as if under the Bodhi tree seeking Enlightenment.

On the side of the temple opposite the main entrance sits the Bodhi tree, cordoned off by a stone fence. The day I was there, I saw a large contingent of Buddhists sitting in a group facing the tree, chanting and praying. On another side of the temple, I saw a long raised platform, known as the Cankamana ("cloister walk"); here, pilgrims light candles and place flowers as a form of worship. The temple is surrounded by large stone sculptures, statues and different walkways, which all have some relationship to the journey of the young prince and the creation of Buddhism. Just south of the temple, there is a small lake. At the center of the lake is a statue of a seated Buddha, protected by a large snake. The legend behind this statue is that the snake-king Muchalinda protected the Buddha from falling rain as he was meditating, thus, this lake is called Muchalinda Lake.

As the sun got higher in the sky, worshipers and tourists flowed into the temple's grounds. I had been there for a few hours, taking in both the ancient architecture and religious depictions as well as the messages of Buddhism. I left the temple, got some lunch and went back to my hotel to briefly rest. Bodhgaya was small, so it could be covered on foot in two days. After leaving here, my next three destinations were the largest cities in India, so I wanted to cherish the slow pace and quiet worship of the Buddhists around town.

BodhGaya is one of the four locations where a significant event in the Buddha's life took place (Enlightenment). The others are Lumbini (birth), Varanasi (first sermon), and Kusinagar (mahaparinirvana - death, thought of as the final release from the suffering of an earthly life). Because BodhGaya holds such significance, there are many national Buddhist temples here. Each of them is within walking distance of Mahabodhi temple, and have wonderful depictions of the Buddha along with national symbols, highly detailed and colorful artwork, and unique architecture. The temples are from Bhutan, China, Thailand, Mongolia, Burma, Japan and Bangladesh; in addition, there is a Tibetan temple as well.

Because Bodhgaya has ties to the creation of Buddhism, the Dalai Lama's presence here is closely monitored and recorded. In 1989, he came to Bodhgaya to bless the large statue of Buddha at the south end of town. The statue is 25 meters high, and required the labor of 120,000 stone masons - the first stone was laid in 1982, and it was completed just before its consecration in 1989.

I was prone to lots of activity and having to go long distances, so Bodhgaya was one of the easiest cities I would visit on my trip - so after walking around just a couple of streets, I was able to cover everything there. I went back to my hotel, and claimed my bag for the journey back to the train station. There, I would board an overnight train for the most eastward destination on my trip, and the farthest I have ever been from home in my entire life: Kolkata. No way was I going to India without passing through Kolkata, a city once visited by my grandfather as part of his tour of duty during WWII.