Little Blue Birdie's Diary

At a sacred site for Buddhists

Dear Diary,

Hello! I'm back again with my journal after the New Year. I'm sure all readers of this journal enjoyed the festival and had fun playing different avurudu games. As birds, we also had fun. The only problem was the thundering sound of crackers. It scared me a lot! Anyway, this week we are in line for another religious event.

On May 1 and 2, we are celebrating the Vesak festival, aren't we? As you all know, Vesak commemorates the Buddha's Birth, Enlightenment and Maha Parinirvana (Passing away). In short, the Vesak Full Moon Poya Day is the Thrice Blessed Day. During this season, everyone visits religious places. So, we also thought of visiting a Buddhist temple.

We visited a place which is related to one of the sacred events I mentioned above. We thought it is best to pay a visit to this place without waiting till Vesak is right upon us, as this place will be one of the busiest Buddhist temples in the world in the coming days.

No need for guessing games, let me tell you where we went. We went to see Bodh Gaya (popularly known as Buddha Gaya) in India, the place where the Buddha attained Enlightenment. This place became important for

 pilgrims due to this reason.

About 250 years after the Enlightenment, the Buddhist Emperor Asoka visited this site and is believed to have founded the Mahabodhi Temple.

Stories say that Asoka, in addition to establishing a monastery, also built a shrine encompassing a diamond throne, with a canopy, supported by four pillars over a stone representation of the Vajrasana, the Seat of Enlightenment, at this spot.

The temple's architecture is superb, but its history is covered in darkness. It was constructed mainly as a monument and not as a holder for the relics of the Buddha.

Several shrines were constructed with enshrined images for use as places of worship. The basement of the present temple is 15m square; 15m in length as well as in breadth.

It's 52 metres in height and rises in the form of a slender pyramid pointing off from a square platform. On its four corners, four towers gracefully rise to a certain height. The whole architectural plan provides a sense of poise and balance to the observers.

The main attractions for pilgrims at Bodh Gaya are the Vajrasana and the other six locations where the Buddha had stayed.

Another attraction is the Mahabodhi Image, a statue in the Mahabodhi Temple that was believed to be an exact likeness of the Buddha. This colossal image of the Buddha is in the "touching the ground" pose (Bhumisparsha mudra).

This image, believed to be over 1,700 years old, is facing the east at the exact place where the Buddha sat in meditation with his back to the Bodhi tree, before attaining Enlightenment. There is a legend concerning the origins of this famous statue.

It's said that when the temple was being built, it was decided to enshrine a statue in it. But for a long time, no sculpture good enough could be found. One day, a man appeared saying that he could do the job. He asked that a pile of scented clay and a lighted lamp be placed in the temple sanctum (inner chamber) and the door be kept locked for six months.

This was done, but being impatient, the people opened the door four days before the required date. Inside was a statue of great beauty, perfect in every detail, except for a small area in the chest that was unfinished.

Sometime later, a monk who had slept in the sanctum had a dream in which Maitriya appeared and said that it was he who had made the statue.

The Mahabodhi Image is among the most revered statues in the Buddhist world and is mentioned in records going back over a thousand years. The main temples at both Nalanda and Vikramasila had copies of this statue.

History of Bodh Gaya

The name Bodh Gaya came into use only in the 18th century. There are records of pilgrims coming to Bodh Gaya from all over India and from almost every land and region where Buddhism had spread.

In about 402 BCE, after a heroic journey through the mountains and deserts of Central Asia, the gentle and religious Fa Hien, who had also visited Sri Lanka and had kept historic records, reached Bodh Gaya, becoming the first Chinese monk ever to do so. On returning home, he wrote an account of his pilgrimage, which in later centuries, inspired hundreds of others to follow in his footsteps.

Another pilgrim, this time a Tibetan, who has also provided us with much information about Bodh Gaya's past, was the scholar monk Dharmasvamin. He arrived there in the spring of 1234 only to find that the place was deserted with only four monks in residence.

One of them had said, "It is not good! All have fled from the Turushka soldiers". The monks had blocked the door in front of the Mahabodhi Image with bricks, and had plastered it. Near it, they had placed another image as a substitute to deceive the enemies.

They had also plastered up the outside door of the temple. On its surface, they had drawn an image of Mahesvara to protect the Mahabodhi Image from non-Buddhists. One of the monks told Dharmasvamin Thera, "The five of us dare not stay here and shall have to flee".

As the days were long and the heat great, they felt tired and as it became dark, they fell asleep. Had the Turushkas come, they would have been taken unawares. After some days, the danger passed and Dharmasvamin and the other monks were able to come back. His biography includes details of everything he saw and experienced in Bodh Gaya, and is the last full account of the place until 1811.

The first evidence of a Sri Lankan arriving in Bodh Gaya is attributed to an inscription by a monk named Bodhiraksita written in the 1st century BCE. Incidentally, this inscription is also the earliest evidence of any pilgrim from outside India coming to Bodh Gaya.

Sri Lankans were not only enthusiastic about making pilgrimages to Bodh Gaya, they also did much to make it an exciting and successful centre of Buddhism.

Given the deep regard Sri Lankan Buddhists have for Bodh Gaya, it is not surprising that it was yet again a Sri Lankan, Anagarika Dharmapala, who began the struggle to restore the temple in 1893. He also built the first modern pilgrims' rest at Bodh Gaya.

There's a lot to write about this place. We will try our best to enhance you with more details in the coming weeks. Until then wish you a Blessed Vesak!

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