Inside the compound of the Mahabodhi Temple, Bodhgaya, Bihar
Here’re some pics of Bodhgaya, the place where Buddha attained enlightenment, and where we nearly froze to death. No, it ain’t really that cold normally, but try doing a 12km auto-rickshaw (India’s equivalent of Thailand’s tuk-tuk) ride at 4am in the middle of a cold spell in winter, dressed in summer clothing. Anyway, somehow we survived despite falling sick right after that, with cold & flu. Maybe Buddha just wanted to show us his tree, his temples from all over the Buddhist world (it’s like the United Nations of the Buddhist world, there’re temples from every Buddhist country and region in the world), his devotees, and a horde of all other things related to Buddhism.
The Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, the main Buddhist temple in the world, where you can see Buddhist devotees of all creeds and colours on a pilgrimage, didn’t know that there’re so many ‘white’ Buddhists…
The Bodhi Tree where Buddha meditated below and attained enlightenment – actually this is only a descendant of the original tree, the original was killed ages ago by some jealous wife of a devout Indian Buddhist emperor who felt she had been neglected (…just like women huh, getting jealous over… a tree!?!?! for goodness sake… better not push my luck too far hehehe). Anyway, luckily for the Buddhist world, some smart chap before that brought a sapling of the original tree and planted it in Buddhist Sri Lanka, so the Indians had to just get a sapling back…
The 25m high Great Buddha (ala Japanese Daijokyo – I think), Bodhgaya, Bihar
