21st December: Visiting the Buddhist temples of Bodhgaya

After a good breakfast at the Tibetan restaurant (porridge for me and banana and papaya pancake for John), our first stop was for some admin: buying new train tickets on the Internet. Our waiting list tickets had not changed over the past few days so we thought it would be safer to have a confirmed booking. Moreover, we had learnt by experience that trains were often late during this time of year and this meant that our 11pm train could be delayed to 3 or 4 am in the morning. Instead, we decided to spend the night in Gaya in a hostel by the train station and get the 4 am train, which we anticipated would arrive at around 8 am (little did we know at the time by how long a train could be delayed).

After this exciting Internet session, it was time for lunch and we went to the restaurant by the hostel. Food was quite tasty, as before, but this time it took a while to arrive. While patiently waiting for our Indian specialities to arrive, we talked to some French tourists who were spending a couple of weeks in Bodhgaya. Most were Buddhists and had come here to visit the most sacred Buddhist sites and to participate in the chanting festival. They would also be there to welcome the Dalai Lama during his (possibly last) visit to Bodhgaya. Looking around, it was clear that we were among the very few who were coming to Bodhgaya merely as tourists.

After lunch we paid a visit to the Tibetan refugee market, where I bought two shawls, plus a wool blanket to deal with the cold during train journeys. On the way back to the main road, we walked past a snake charmer and his cobra, very charming indeed!

We then walked around the town to visit the various Buddhist temples. The Japanese temples were very discreet and modest in comparison with the colourful Bhutanese or Tibetan temples. We particularly enjoyed the fine murals inside the Tibetan Namgyal Monastery.

Tibetan Buddhist temple

Inside the Tibetan temple

Mural in the Tibetan temple

Facade of the Bhutanese temple

Japanese Buddhist temple (with a school next door)

Inside the Japanese temple

We reached the Great Buddha Statue (which is said to contain 20,000 small bronze Buddhas) for sunset and enjoyed the pink light gleaming on it. It was built in the 1980's by the Japanese Daijokyo Buddhist sect.

On our way back to the main road, we were followed by two very determined kids asking for money, but we turned out to be more stubborn. Central Bihar is one of the poorest part of India, which we realised when we saw the villages' huts along the road on the way from Gaya.

We retreated to the hostel for a little while before going out for dinner to the Tibetan restaurant where we had very tasty veg. momos with hummus and some veg. Chopsuey pasta.