Dungeshwari Cave Temple
Cave · the emaciated Buddha of the austerities; the Hindu goddess Dungeshwari · Dungeshwari Hills, Gaya, Bihar
This is where Siddhartha Gautama is believed to have practised severe austerities for six years before...
A group of cave shrines in the hills northeast of Bodh Gaya, holding three Buddhist shrines. One cave has a golden emaciated Buddha showing the body wasted by extreme asceticism; another has a Buddha statue about six feet tall. A separate cave temple is dedicated to the Hindu goddess Dungeshwari, so the site is in Hindu and Buddhist use at once.
Plan your visit
- Best season
- September to April
- Area
- Bodh Gaya
- Status
- Coming Soon
Yatras that include Dungeshwari Cave Temple
- Buddhist Yatra: The cave where he nearly died trying. The emaciated statue inside is the point of the stop.
- Silence and Stillness: The cave above the river where he fasted for six years. A climb, and quiet.
Experiences here
- Sit in a cave: People have gone to these rooms to be alone for two thousand two hundred years
Tirtham can arrange here
Guide, car and stay around Bodh Gaya
Also around Bodh Gaya
- Litti chokha: The dish people mean when they say Bihari food.
- Sattu sharbat in summer: What Bihar drinks against the heat: roasted gram, water, lemon and salt, sold from carts on every corner.
- Tilkut on Ramna Road: Gaya's winter sweet, pounded from sesame and jaggery by hand for about 150 years, and eaten at Makar Sankranti.
- Anarsa of Gaya: The rice-and-sesame sweet Bihar Tourism places at Gaya.
- Magahi paan: The betel leaf of old Magadh, soft enough to melt in the mouth, grown under thatch in Nawada, Gaya, Aurangabad and Nalanda.
- The winter Tibetan market: Every winter, when the monasteries fill, Tibetan families set up a market beside the Mahabodhi temple.
Nearby places
- 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
- 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
Questions pilgrims ask
Why is Dungeshwari Cave Temple important?
A group of cave shrines in the hills northeast of Bodh Gaya, holding three Buddhist shrines. One cave has a golden emaciated Buddha showing the body wasted by extreme asceticism; another has a Buddha statue about six feet tall. A separate cave temple is dedicated to the Hindu goddess Dungeshwari, so the site is in Hindu and Buddhist use at once.
When is the best time to visit Dungeshwari Cave Temple?
September to April.
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