Bodh Gaya
Where the Buddha reached enlightenment. The monastery belt of eighteen countries stands around the tree.
Gaya belt
Places around Bodh Gaya
- Mahabodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya: Where the Buddha attained enlightenment
- Muchalinda Sarovar: It marks the sixth week of the Buddha's post-enlightenment retreat
- Great Buddha Statue: It is the landmark image of modern Bodh Gaya, the first great Buddha built in India, consecrated by the...
- Sujata Stupa: It marks the house of Sujata, who offered the Buddha milk-rice under a banyan and ended his years of...
- Sujata Kuti: Pilgrims walking the Sujata route from Bodh Gaya stop here alongside the stupa
- Dungeshwari Cave Temple: This is where Siddhartha Gautama is believed to have practised severe austerities for six years before...
- Jagannath Temple, Bodh Gaya: Hindus in Bodh Gaya come for darshan and for the daily Mahaprasad
- Maya Sarovar: It is a devotional and family stop associated with Maya Devi, more a park and evening show than a shrine
- Wat Thai Buddhagaya: Thai and other Theravada pilgrims come for the main Buddha image and for meditation sessions
- Indosan Nipponji: Japanese pilgrims and meditators come here, and it is one of the quietest halls in Bodh Gaya for sitting
- Royal Bhutan Monastery: Bhutanese and Himalayan pilgrims come here, and other visitors come for the murals, which are among the...
- Tibetan Temple, Bodh Gaya: Tibetan pilgrims come for prayer, and other visitors come to turn the great Dharmachakra
- Karma Temple: It is a Karma Kagyu prayer and practice centre for pilgrims of that lineage
- Tergar Monastery: Pilgrims attend the winter Monlam prayer gathering and teachings here
- Namgyal Monastery, Bodh Gaya: Pilgrims turn the prayer wheels and attend teachings when the Dalai Lama is in Bodh Gaya
- Chinese Temple, Bodh Gaya: Chinese and East Asian pilgrims come here, and the 200-year-old image is the draw for others
- Vietnamese Temple, Bodh Gaya: Vietnamese pilgrims come here for prayer and lodging
- Burmese Vihara: Burmese pilgrims stay and practise here, and it is a long-standing pilgrim rest house
- Bangladesh Buddhist Vihara: Bangladeshi pilgrims lodge and worship here
- Metta Buddharam Temple: A quieter Thai alternative to Wat Thai for darshan and meditation
- Root Institute for Wisdom Culture: Western and Indian practitioners come for structured meditation retreats and courses rather than for...
- Tapovan: Pilgrims take a holy dip in the hot springs, which are believed to cure chronic illness
More to see and do
Litti chokha
The dish people mean when they say Bihari food.
Wheat dough balls filled with spiced sattu, baked over coals and dipped in ghee, eaten with chokha of roasted brinjal, potato and tomato.
Sattu sharbat in summer
What Bihar drinks against the heat: roasted gram, water, lemon and salt, sold from carts on every corner.
Sattu stirred into water with cumin, coriander, green chilli and black salt, salty or sweet.
Tilkut on Ramna Road
Gaya's winter sweet, pounded from sesame and jaggery by hand for about 150 years, and eaten at Makar Sankranti.
Sesame and sugar or jaggery beaten flat in the shops along Ramna Road. The street smells of it from November to February.
Anarsa of Gaya
The rice-and-sesame sweet Bihar Tourism places at Gaya.
Powdered rice, sugar and khoya, rolled in white sesame and fried.
Magahi paan
The betel leaf of old Magadh, soft enough to melt in the mouth, grown under thatch in Nawada, Gaya, Aurangabad and Nalanda.
Leaves grown in bareja, hut-like shelters against heat and cold, by Chaurasia families around Deuri in Hisua block. Folded with fennel and cardamom after a meal.
The winter Tibetan market
Every winter, when the monasteries fill, Tibetan families set up a market beside the Mahabodhi temple.
Stalls of woollens, Buddha figures, prayer flags and Tibetan food (thukpa, momos) from November to March, north of the temple near the bus stand.
International Tipitaka Chanting
For ten days each December monks from across Asia chant the Pali Canon under the Bodhi tree; held every year since 2006.
Chanting beneath the Bodhi tree through the day, evening Dhamma talks in Hindi and English, a procession, and a closing walk to Rajgir.
Dahi chura on Makar Sankranti
The Makar Sankranti breakfast across Bihar: flattened rice, curd and jaggery, with tilkut after.
Chura, dahi and gur eaten together on the morning of Sankranti, with tilkut.
Yatras through Bodh Gaya
- Buddhist Yatra: The road the Buddha walked, in the order he walked it
- Silence and Stillness: Bihar is where meditation was taught first, and it is still taught here free
Experiences
- Sit with a monastery: Eighteen countries keep a monastery here, and several teach anybody who walks in
- Dawn under the Bodhi tree: The courtyard opens at five, and for an hour it is almost empty
- Sit in a cave: People have gone to these rooms to be alone for two thousand two hundred years
Tirtham can arrange here
A guide who knows the places, a car with a driver we have met, and a stay nearby. Tell us your dates and we call to confirm.
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