Great Buddha Statue
Statue · Gautama Buddha in meditation · Bodh Gaya, Gaya, Bihar
It is the landmark image of modern Bodh Gaya, the first great Buddha built in India, consecrated by the...
An 80 ft (24 m) construction: a 64 ft Buddha on a 5 ft lotus base and a 10 ft lower pedestal, nearly 60 ft wide at its base, built of sandstone blocks and red granite. Designed by V. Ganapati Sthapati and built by around 12,000 stonemasons over seven years, 1982-1989, at the initiative of the Japanese Daijokyo sect. It stands in a garden at the end of Temple Street, flanked by ten sculptures of the Buddha's principal disciples, five a side. A spiral staircase inside rises to chest height where about 16,300 small bronze Buddha images are displayed. The Daijokyo Buddhist Temple adjoins it.
Plan your visit
- Area
- Bodh Gaya
- Status
- Coming Soon
Festivals
- consecrated 18 November 1989 by the 14th Dalai Lama (anniversary, not a fair)
Yatras that include Great Buddha Statue
- Buddhist Yatra: Twenty-five metres of sandstone, and the one thing in Bodh Gaya you can see from outside it.
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
- 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
Questions pilgrims ask
Why is Great Buddha Statue important?
An 80 ft (24 m) construction: a 64 ft Buddha on a 5 ft lotus base and a 10 ft lower pedestal, nearly 60 ft wide at its base, built of sandstone blocks and red granite. Designed by V. Ganapati Sthapati and built by around 12,000 stonemasons over seven years, 1982-1989, at the initiative of the Japanese Daijokyo sect. It stands in a garden at the end of Temple Street, flanked by ten sculptures of the Buddha's principal disciples, five a side. A spiral staircase inside rises to chest height where about 16,300 small bronze Buddha images are displayed. The Daijokyo Buddhist Temple adjoins it.
Which festivals are celebrated at Great Buddha Statue?
consecrated 18 November 1989 by the 14th Dalai Lama (anniversary, not a fair).
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