SS Quah's Anything Goes: Nepal-India Days 9 and 10: Bodhgaya

Monday, 9 February 2026

Nepal-India Days 9 and 10: Bodhgaya

Dateline: 29 and 30 November 2025. When one thinks of Bodhgaya, one thinks of the place where the Buddha attained Enlightenment. There isn't any need to explain further. Our group had two mornings here and both were spent at the Mahabodhi Mahavihara Temple in the heart of the town and the reason Bodhgaya exists at all. The town itself isn’t large but it feels permanently clogged. Every road leads to the temple and every road is packed. Monks in maroon, saffron, grey and brown from all directions. Lay pilgrims from everywhere. Street vendors pushing tourism trinkets everywhere. It never really stops.

The first morning felt urgent, almost impatient. Everyone was trying to get to the same place, the same point in space and time. Getting into the temple compound was a small challenge. Security was tight and layered. Scanners, pat-downs, queues that crept forward by inches. Phones were strictly banned. Cameras, strangely enough, were allowed for a fee and the two of us with cameras complied. We happily paid and walked in feeling chuffed, as if we had crossed some small but deliberate line and emerged victorious.

Once past the first checkpoint, the street noise fell away quickly. The air thickened with expectation. Shoes were off next, then onto the stone walkway. On either side were rows of small votive stupas, some ancient, some freshly placed, but all carrying the same intention. Ahead of us rose the Mahabodhi Mahavihara Temple itself and it was impressive because of its height. It doesn’t spread out, it climbs upwards. A narrow pyramid of brickwork rising almost straight up, tier after tier packed with niches, carvings, Buddha figures and those repeating patterns. Right at the top, the golden finial caught the light and drew the eye upward. I could understand why people travelled for weeks just to stand here and look up.

Our journey through the grounds began not with the tree but with the temple’s interior. At the centre was a bright chamber glowing from above. A golden Buddha statue sat there, calm and serene, draped in a heavy brown robe and a yellow shoulder cloth. Behind the head was a white halo blazed against the wall. Above, a massive golden umbrella hung low like a crown. We murmured our prayers. We managed to pass a set of robes to the attendant monk. Almost immediately we were ushered along. No lingering allowed. Too many people behind us.

Back outside, we followed the stone path around to the rear of the temple. Movement here was strictly one way. No arguments. A tall, ornate golden fence separated us from the most sensitive ground of all, the place of the Enlightenment itself. The fence kept people moving and more importantly kept the roots of the Bodhi Tree safe. This was not the original tree under which the Buddha sat. That one was cut down long ago. So this was a living descendant, grown from the same line, carrying the memory forward.

At the first section of the railing, things were busy. This was where flowers were offered. A priest stood inside the enclosure, hands never stopping, taking garlands and baskets from pilgrims and scattering them at the base of the tree. Petals piled up in soft layers, fresh colour feeding ancient roots. It was repetitive and oddly calming to watch.

Further along, the mood shifted. People leaned quietly against the bars, heads bowed, lips moving. From here we could see into the protected space beneath the Bodhi Tree. There stood the Vajrasana, the Diamond Throne. Not a seat as such but a raised platform, fully covered, sheltered by an ornate canopy and wrapped in gold. This was the exact spot where Siddhartha Gautama sat through the night that changed everything. No one could get close but no one needed to. Just seeing it was enough.

At the far end was the chanting area. This was where groups like ours gathered. In front stood a long golden table covered with offerings, pink lotuses, fruit, stacks of texts. Space was tight. We sat close together behind as our monks began chanting. The crowd flowed past behind us, a constant stream. Some paused for a while to listen and then moved on. It felt public and private at the same time.

Just around the corner was the Cloister Walk, the path where the Buddha is said to have walked in meditation during the second week after his Enlightenment. Stone lotuses marked the raised platform, blooming permanently where legend says his feet once touched the ground. As we stood there, we realised this wasn't just a historical site but a living, breathing landscape where the "awakening" of 2,500 years ago felt like a present moment.

With the main objectives accomplished on the first day, the second morning was slower, more relaxed and reflective. We stayed close to the Bodhi Tree and traced the seven weeks that followed the Enlightenment. The story began exactly where we stood at the golden railing. For the first week, the Buddha remained seated on the Vajrasana, absorbed in the bliss of liberation. Then he moved north-east of the tree and stood there for an entire week, eyes unblinking, gazing at the Bodhi Tree in gratitude. A small stupa with a standing Buddha now marks that spot.

In the third week, he practiced walking meditation, pacing back and forth along what we now call the Cloister Walk. Eighteen lotuses are said to have bloomed beneath his feet and today they are carved into stone. In the fourth week, he meditated in a small shrine known as the Ratnaghar. Tradition says his body radiated six colours of light there, colours that would later form the Buddhist flag.

The fifth week was spent under a banyan tree, where he spoke to a Brahmin and made it clear that holiness came from conduct, not birth. A pillar near the temple entrance marks that place now. In the sixth week, he sat by a pond. A storm broke and the serpent king Muchalinda rose from the water, coiling around the Buddha and spreading his hood above him as shelter. The pond is still there, with a large statue of the Buddha protected by the cobra at its centre. There is, however, a small puzzle hanging over this pond, one I’ll come back to in the next story.

The seventh week was spent under the Rajayatna tree. At the end of it, two merchants, Tapussa and Bhallika, offered him rice cake and honey. They became his first lay disciples, an occasion marking the beginning of the spread of the Buddha's teachings to the world.

Walking these sites one by one, it became clear that the Mahabodhi Temple is not just a monument frozen in time. It is a living city of faith. Monks from every tradition camped on the grounds. Lay pilgrims slept, prayed, waited. This has gone on for centuries. For those resting there, this was the Vajrasana, the Diamond Throne, the centre of the universe. Faces in the crowd changed as people came and went, but the energy did not. People believed that even one night in the city of the Buddha's Enlightenment meant something. With that, we had completed the third of our four essential stops. Only one more to go.