Bodh Gaya

There are many temples in Bodh Gaya as all countries with a significant Buddhist population want to have at least a temple, if not a monastery, dedicated at the place where the Buddha attained enlightenment. I visited temples from Burma, Bhutan, China Japan and Thailand and there are more. But, the crown jewel, of course, is the Mahabodhi Temple. I saw it first at night and the lights and glitz and fanfare was a bit too much. But, the sea of monastics and pilgrims and interested tourists is amazing. There were particularly a lot of Tibetan and Theravada monastics, but also monks from Japan and Korea who I think represented Pure Land and maybe Shinnyo-en traditions. Some groups were just monastics and some monastics from Thailand, Korea and Japan led groups of laypeople. In all, a magical mix of pujas and devotional practices of all kinds: chanting, bowing, thousands of prostrations, dharma talks, parambulating around the temple and in spite of the buzz, some even simply meditating. Since my first night there was a fully moon, there were also a few camped out in mosquito nets for the all night vigil of Uposatha. There were also many Indians, some perhaps following some form of Buddhism, some seeing the site as a holy Hindu place, and others just paying their respects at a profound holy spot. Some of it is a bit overdone - there is even one smaller temple building with strings of blinking colored lights around it that even change colors. I am pretty sure the Buddha would not approve of the excess and I find it detracts from the importance of the site; but, the devout faces of monastics and pilgrims from around the Buddhist world, the flow of the many expressions of faith and the air filled with homage and Dharma, make the Mahabodhi Temple a special experience. And to sit at the base of the Bodhi tree... breathe, let go, join the flow - Namo Buddhaya, Namo Dhammaya, Namo Sanghaya.