Bodh Gaya

Date arrived: 20th February 2024

Date Departed: 23rd February 2024 

Favourite sight: Butterfly Sanctuary

Average Cost: £18.08 PPPD

Bodh Gaya is one of the most holy places in the world for Buddhists. It is the place where Prince Siddhartha attained enlightenment whilst meditating under a Bodhi tree, and thus this small and poor town in Behir state in North India is home to rather a lot of pilgrims!

20th February 2024

Our delayed train from Kolkata arrived into Gaya Junction station at 9PM, and we still had some 14KM to travel to get to Bodh Gaya. This was managed in a tuk-tuk, but travelling in the dark on busy roads was definitely one of our hairiest road journeys yet. We got checked into our accommodation promptly, and after a brief session killing mosquitoes, went straight to bed.

21st February

Bodh Gaya is a funny little place, as the town has grown up pretty much in the last 20 years in order to accommodate increased tourist and pilgrim demand to see the famous Mahabodhi Temple. The temple is the site of the Bodhi tree that Prince Siddhartha sat beneath to meditate, fending off demons, desire, fear, pride and thirst, to ultimately awake as the enlightened one - the first Buddha.

Whilst the Buddha is believed to have gained enlightement in the 5th century BCE, the current Mahabodi temple dates from around 600CE, some 11-1200 years later. It is believed that elements of it are as old as 200CE, however. The Bodhi tree which grows next to the temple is said to be a direct descendant of the original 2,600 year old tree.

Having recovered from our previous days travel with a lie-in, we found a small cafe for some breakfast, then set out to visit the Mahabodhi Temple. Entry is very strict, and you may take no bags or technology inside. I was even asked to remove my smart watch! Free lockers are provided for phones, bags, etc, and the whole thing is pretty well organised. Entry is also free.

The temple itself is quite impressive, the main 55M tall structure set in large grounds with various levels of walkways around it. You can enter the inner sanctum, and you can also go around the back of the tree where the Bodha tree sits, in a small enclosure. This area is peaceful, and there are areas laid out for students to meditate or think on the tree.

There is also a meditation garden which you can enter for a small charge. All in all it's a reasonably tranquil and thought provoking experience, and I imagine for a Buddhist it must be quite special.

From the temple we called into the Be Happy Cafe, which promised - and delivered - the best coffee in Bodh Gaya. As well as a gret latte they did an excellent slice of millionaire's shortbread, and a lovely carrot cake. After a long and busy morning we spent the (quite rainy) afternoon in the accommodation, and went out to a decent, but very simple, Thai resturant for dinner.

22nd February

As Bodh Gaya has kind of grown up organically in the last few years, the infrastructure is just starting to catch up. This means that the roads aren't particularly good for much of the town, which is made worse at the moment becuase there is a big road-building project going on. As a consequence there are quite a few dirt roads, and when it rains it can be a bit miserable! it had rained last night, so everything was a bit soggy and muddy today.

This morning we set out to explore some of the other Buddhist temples that litter the town. Every predominantly Buddhist nation has a temple here, and some of them are very large and spectacular. The Japanese one even has an 84' tall seated Buddha next to it!

Again, because of the rapid growth of the town, the road structures aren't very good, and getting fromt he north to the south involves either a long detour and doubling back on yourself, or winding through all of the little alleyways on the west of town. We did this once, then decided to take the longer detour in future!

We did manage to see the Chinese temple, and a (closed) Tibetan monastery, and then we allowed ourselves to explore the surprising Jaiprakash Park Butterfly Sanctuary. We learned about the life cycle of Butterflies here, and were actually able to release a new-hatched butterfly into the wild.

The guide at the butterfly park explained to use that releasing new born creatures is seen as an auspicious thing by Buddhists, however unscrupulous individuals have taken to capturing young birds, caging them, and then selling them on to followers to enable this. This is not good for the creatures or the natural cycle, so by breeeding butterflies in a controlled environment, the sanctuary enables the release to take place without harm.

After the butterflies and some lunch, we set out to visit the 84' tall Buddha statue, and some of the other temples on the way.  We got caught in a bit of a rainstorm, but did manage to see some very cool temples!

VaranasiYou can see the big Buddha picture at the top of the page as well.

23rd February

Today we left Bodh Gaya to head west to Varanasi. A leisurely beakfast at the Be Happy Cafe, followed by an hour long tuk-tuk ride took us through the busy streets of Gaya, dropping us at Gaya Junction railway station where the platform was rammed with travellers for the Varanasi train. 0

We were pleased it was a short train - just three hours - as our theoretically reserved 2nd class sleeper berths seemed to be double booked, and at one stage there were 9 people sitting in an area that had 4 seats!

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