Bodh Gaya Bihar | Bodh Gaya History | Gauthama Buddha Bodh Gaya | Bodh Gaya Enlightenment Place | Bodh Gaya Tree| Bodh Gaya UNESCO | Bodh Gaya UPSC
Bodh Gaya is the Place, Where Gathama Buddha Found enlightenment by sitting under Bodhi Tree/ Peepal Tree. This is a Worlds Famous Religious Shrine Located in Gaya District of Bihar State in India.
The Mahabodhi Complex is a Temple Dedicated to Gauthama Buddha and there are a group of Temples here all dedicated to Lord Buddha. Tallest Buddha Statue is also in Bodh Gaya. In 2002, This was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
For centuries, religion, politics, myth, and records have converged around a small metropolis at the banks of the Phalgu River simply south of the country capital Patna in India.
This excellent area—Bodh Gaya—is thought to be the site of the enlightenment, or “first-rate awakening” (Sanskrit, Mahabodhi), of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha.
It turned into right here that Siddhartha Gautama sat in meditation under the Bodhi tree, having renounced his princely lifestyles to wander and exercise asceticism. Here, he defeated temptation withinside the shape of the demon Mara and set a first-rate international religion—Buddhism—into motion.
The occasions of the Buddha’s lifestyles are understood to have taken area someday withinside the fifth-century B.C.E. More than 2,500 years later, Bodh Gaya is a sprawling pilgrimage metropolis dense with ancient, medieval, and present-day shrines, monasteries, temples, and hotels. The historic and archaeological file at this sacred Buddhist middle stretches lower back to as a minimum the third-century B.C.E.
History
Gauthama Buddha, The Founder of Buddism was born in 563 BC on the auspicious day of Baisakhi Purnima. He renounced his family in 534 BC that means at the age of 29 he traveled across places and after 5 years of practicing peace and meditation.
According to Hindu Calendar in the MOnth of April on Baisakhi Purnima, Gauthama buddha has found enlightenment under the Peepal tree which is now considered as Holy Tree, After 200 years Later in 250BC, The Great King Ashoka after learning about Buddhism built a great Temple Shrine in Bodh Gaya.
Enlightenment Phase
Having completed this for a while he has become dissatisfied with this severe course and departed his ascetic partners wandering in north India till he arrived on the Bodhi tree (pipal tree or ficus religiosa) at the banks of the Phalgu River.
Taking a seat below this tree to start an extended meditation, the Buddha-to-be turned into visible via way of means of the servant of a neighborhood noblewoman who, wondering he turned into a tree spirit, offered him with a bowl of rice and milk.
With this nourishment, he persevered to meditate below this tree and noticed off the assaults of the demon Mara; who had despatched each his demonic armies and daughters to distract the meditating Siddhartha Gautama.
At that second the Buddha turned into requested to offer a witness to this spectacular feat; and so the Buddha touched the earth with the hands of his proper hand, calling the Earth Goddess to witness. Buddhist traditions diverge on a number of these accounts however this second and the location at which it occurred, below the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, is enormous to all Buddhist traditions.
Bodh Gaya Architecture
The Temple is built by India’s King and also a philosopher of Buddism, The Great Ashoka in 250 BC. The Mahabodhi Temple was built during the Era of the Gupta Empire in the 6th Century AD.
The Great Buddha statue is 80ft High and the Mahabodhi Temple is 180ft high having a stupa on the top of the Temple. It is mostly built with Bricks covered with stucco. The area is about 5 Hectares.
UNESCO WHS Status
Bodh Gaya is the place where Gauthama Buddha was said to Gain Enlightenment when he was sitting under Bodhi Tree, As this place reflects Cultural Importance, UNESCO Granted World Heritage Site Status in 2002.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Mahabodhi Temple Complex, accommodates the sanctuary, Bodhi Tree (in which Buddha completed edification), and 6 different holy spots.
As Cunnigham expounded on his unearthing: ‘However the maximum vital disclosure became the manner that the prevailing sanctuary is fabricated exactly over the last elements of Asoka’s Temple, with the aim that the primary Vajrasana Throne nevertheless holds its vintage function of the Buddha’s seat and the presumed recognition of the Universe’.
The Temple Complex, encompassed through an 11-foot-excessive restrict divider, is 5 meters below the land and drawn closer through a journey of steps using down. Further along, a focal manner paves the manner to the Temple. Many trust this could be the closing site to move down earlier than the decimation of the universe and the primary to go back on a clean start.
Mahabodhi Temple
The Mahabodhi Temple because it seems nowadays is, in general, the manufactured from restorations undertaken withinside the overdue nineteenth century: first via way of means of a Burmese undertaking after which overseen via way of means of these days hooked up Archaeological Survey of India (see the timeline above).
The towering brick, stucco, and the urban temple are visible at Bodh Gaya nowadays include a huge number one straight-sided spire (Sanskrit, shikhara), growing out of a vital photograph chamber (Sanskrit, garbha-griha). Four smaller spires take a seat down at the nook of the principal chamber and every of those is, because the number one spire, surmounted via way of means of the shape of a Buddhist relic mound (Sanskrit, stupa).
The floor of the temple is studded with receding ranges of Buddha pictures set into niches alternating with circular “cow’s eye windows,” now no longer not like the money owed of Chinese pilgrims and early depictions of this construction in art. The overdue nineteenth-century recuperation of the Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya made huge changes to the site, however.
Although those have been primarily based totally on architectural stays and fashions inclusive of that proven withinside the version of the temple, pre-recuperation artwork and photos screen how a good deal changed into invented, inclusive of the gateway pavilion on the second one-storeyed, the 4 nook spires, and plenty of the floor ornament.
This duration of recuperation and partial excavation of the complicated additionally added to mild the numerous small “votive” (touching on a wish) shrines and pictures which had step by step constructed up across the temple over centuries.
Best Season to Visit
The Best season to Visit Bodh Gaya is Either Winter or Monsoon, Buddha Looks Magnificent in the drizzling rain and also very cool in Winters.
Climate Effect
There is a Slight Deterioration of few statues Because they withstood almost 1500 years of Climate and ASI Took steps to save these sculptures from Further damage. Other Destructions were due to Human Interference.
Entry Ticket Cost
There is no particular entry fee, But you will be charged for the camera, Video also Drone is Prohibited, The Timings for Mahabodhi Temple is from 5 AM TO 9 PM.
Book Tickets Here : PAYUMONEY
Travel Route
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COVID 19 RESTRICTIONS
As of July 2021, Lock Down is Lifted in some places in India, Also Few places are restricted as per timings, All Monuments / Parks are open up till a certain time. Further updates will be posted, But International Travelers better skip this season for Travel to India.
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