The Mahabodhi Temple Buddhist temple in Bodh Gaya | Tourist Place in Gaya
- Mahabodhi Temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, marking the location where Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, to have attained enlightenment.
- Bodh Gaya, located in Gaya district, is located about 96 km (60 mi) from Patna, Bihar state, India.
- Next to the temple, on its western side, is the holy Bodhi tree.
Attractions :
- The Bodhi tree at Bodhigaya is directly connected to the life of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama (566—486 BCE), who attained enlightenment or perfect insight when he was meditating under an ancestor of this Pipal tree.
- The temple was built directly to the east of the Bodhi tree under which the Buddha spent his first week after attaining enlightenment.
- According to Buddhist mythology, if no Bodhi tree grows at the site, the ground around the Bodhi tree is devoid of all plants for a distance of one royal karīsa and nothing can travel in the air immediately above it, not even Sakka.
- According to the Jatakas, the navel of the earth lies at this spot, and no other place can support the weight of the Buddha's attainment.
- Another Buddhist tradition claims that when the world is destroyed at the end of a kalpa, the Bodhimanda is the last spot to disappear, and will be the first to appear when the world emerges into existence again.
- Tradition also claims that a lotus will bloom there, and if a Buddha is born during that the new kalpa, the lotus flowers in accordance with the number of Buddhas expected to arise.
- According to legend, in the case of Gautama Buddha, a Bodhi tree sprang up on the day he was born.