Bodh Gaya is the most hallowed ground for Buddhists from all over the world. Photo / Getty Images
Bodh Gaya is the most hallowed ground for Buddhists from all over the world. Photo / Getty Images
Bodh Gaya is the most hallowed ground for Buddhists from all over the world. At this location, nearly 2600 years ago, Siddhartha Gautama gained enlightenment and became Buddha, or as some fervent devotees say “God became human”.
A feeling of sacredness engulfs me when I step inside the 12-acre Mahabodhi Temple complex – the actual 55m-high temple tower greeting my eyes from a fair distance. I am not a Buddhist but have always been captivated by the legends associated with the life of Buddha and the evolution of the religion so wanted to visit the site where it all supposedly happened millennia ago.
I walk straight to the original meditation site where, surrounded by well-decorated stone railings, lies the Bodhi tree – a descendant of the original – and the stone slab laid by Emperor Ashoka later to mark the location where Siddhartha meditated and became Buddha.
The Bodhi tree, where the Buddha reached nirvana in Bodhgaya, India. Photo / 123RF
Siddhartha’s early life was characterised by royal opulence, but as he grew older, he began to realise that wealth and luxury don’t promise everlasting happiness. So when he was 29, he left his regal abode in search of eternal bliss. After reaching the present site of Bodh Gaya, he started meditating under a Bodhi (fig) tree until he gained the ultimate spiritual enlightenment. He was then 35 and, until his death at 80, he travelled to preach to his followers his ideas. Thus, a new religion, Buddhism, was born, one of the oldest faiths in the world.
Nearly 300 years after Buddha’s death, Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, one of his greatest followers of all time, built a monument at the site next to the Bodhi Tree. That sanctuary, rebuilt gorgeously in the 5th century AD, stands today as the famous Mahabodhi Temple. A Unesco World Heritage Site, it reflects the architectural genius of the Indian people in constructing a fully developed brick temple that has firmly withstood the sun and rain for the past 1500 years.
Over time, Bodh Gaya became an important pilgrimage site for Buddhists worldwide. In more recent times, the visitor numbers have been so high - and include VIP Buddhists, like the Dalai Lama and Richard Gere - the Indian government has built a decent airport in the nearby Hindu holy town of Gaya, around 15km away.
India's Bodh Gaya, said to be the birthplace of Buddhism, has become an important pilgrimage site for Buddhists worldwide. Photo / 123RF
For Travel - May 9
While standing there myself, adrenaline rushes through me, thinking I am only metres away from God. The time gap of 2600 years shrinks magically to make me realise I am in front of the same person whose statues I had earlier seen inside many temples throughout the world. Peace and calmness hypnotise me. Though the sensation lasts only for seconds, I realise it is a momentary transfer of a kind of godly bliss within me, a similar feeling to when I stood next to the birthplace of Jesus inside the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem or touched the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
Later, my guide Mahesh ushers me to the seven sacred spots within the temple arena, where Buddha meditated for weeks after he had attained self-realisation. All are clearly marked with inscriptions. While passing through the various locations, the past becomes present to me and I feel like I am walking in the shadow of a God.
Immersing yourself in sanctity doesn’t mean ignoring the architectural grandeur of the massive temple. The pyramidal tower of the temple comprises several layers of niches, arch motifs, and fine engravings. Its design fits in with the typical Indian style of temple construction, different to other notable Buddhist shrines like the Borobudur Temple in Indonesia, Pagodas in Myanmar or the Temple of the Tooth in Sri Lanka.
Beyond the Mahabodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya is dotted with monasteries from other Buddhist nations like Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Tibet and Bhutan. It is also home to a 20m-high Buddha statue.
After Buddha’s death, the faith began to grow in India and neighbouring Asian countries. Around the 5th century AD, a monastic university was established at Nalanda, 70km away, as an epicentre of learning in Buddhism. Said to be the world’s first residential teaching institution, the entire complex, almost 10km in length, was utterly demolished in the 12th century by Muslim invaders from Central Asia. It’s said the university library was so well stocked with books and documents that it took the destroyers more than six months to burn them all. After that massive destruction, and subsequent natural disasters, the remains became hidden under the earth until British explorers discovered some of them in the 19th century.
Around the 5th century AD, a monastic university was established at Nalanda in what is now India, as an epicentre of learning in Buddhism. Photo / Sandip Hor
Mahesh takes me there to see the excavated ruins. Looking at the red brick blocks it’s hard to imagine that at its peak this arena accommodated more than 10,000 students and 2000 teachers. But historians endorse this as a fact - it’s recorded in the journals of famous 7th-century Chinese scholar Xuanzang who travelled all the way from China by foot to Nalanda to study Buddhism. In his honour, there is a museum in Nalanda which is a great place to learn more about the ancient university, understand the vast impact it had on Indian culture at that time and the role it played to spread Buddhism to other parts of the world.
Checklist: Bihar, India
GETTING THERE
Fly with Singapore Airlines from Auckland to Kolkata, the getaway city to Eastern India, from where Bodh Gaya is well connected by road, rail and air. singaporeair.com
The airline's 23rd safety video stars basketball player Steven Adams, comedian Tom Sainsbury, sports broadcaster Andrew Mulligan and several other iconic Kiwis.
