T
HE Mahabodhi Temple (“Great Awakening Temple”) in Bodh Gaya, India, is one of the four holiest sites in Buddhism – the other three being Lumbini,
where
the
Buddha
was
born;
Sarnath,
where
he
delivered
his
first
teaching;
and
K
ushinagar,
where
he
died.
The
temple
was
built
near
the
de-
scendant
of
the
fig
tree
under
which
Prince
Siddhartha
Gautama
sat
and
meditated.
After
seven
weeks
he
reached
nirvana
(enlightenment)
and
became
th
e
Buddha
(“enlightened
one”),
the
founder
of
Buddhism.
The
temple
was
declared
a
Unesco
World
Heritage
Site
in
THE MAHABODHI TEMPLEIn part four of our series on religious sites, we visit the Mahabodhi Temple in India. It was built on the site Buddhists believe the Buddha reached enlightenment
COMPILED BY
COLIN HENDRICKS
INFOGRAPHIC:
MICHAEL DE LUCCHI
HOLY SITES:
PART 4
OF 5
NOW YOU
KNOW
In 2007 a former head monk
at the temple, Bhikkhu
Bodhipala, had to quit after he was accused of cutting
off a br
anch of the holy
Bodhi tree to sell to a rich
Buddhist.
SHOES OFFTemperatures in Bodh Gaya vary between
25 and 45
degrees
Celsius. As a result, the floor of the temple can get quite hot but it’s forbidden for visitors to wear shoes inside. Tourist can bring along a pair of old socks to wear. Water is offered at the temple but it’s better to buy bottled water to take with you.
CENTRAL TOWERThe temple has a
55m
central
tower (“sikhara”) sur-rounded by four smaller towers. An entrance takes you into a small hall leading to two shrines with statues of the Buddha.
ARCHITECTUREThe temple is one of the region’s oldest brick structures that’s still standing. It looks like a tall, thin stepped pyramid without a tip. Instead it has a stupa on top – a domed structure often found in Buddhist architecture.
Average man
24,3m
1,7m
GREAT BUDDHA STATUEThe statue of the meditating Buddha outside the temple is 24,3m tall. Started in 1982, it’smade of red granite and sand-stone blocks and took seven years
to
complete. About 120 000 stone masons helped build it.
The four smaller towers look the same as the central tower.
The original temple was built in the third century BC by the Indian Emperor Ashoka the Great. The cur-rent building dates from the fifth to sixth century
and a lot of it was restored in the 19th century.
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