At Bodh Gaya in Bihar stands the Mahabodhi Temple, marking the most sacred site in the Buddhist world — the place where, some twenty-five centuries ago, Prince Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment beneath the Bodhi tree and became the Buddha, the Awakened One. A descendant of that very tree still grows beside the temple, and the Vajrasana, the diamond throne, marks the spot of his awakening.
The towering brick temple, rising some fifty metres, traces its origins to the emperor Ashoka in the third century BCE, and stands today as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists from every land. Monks and devotees gather to meditate, circumambulate, and offer prayers where the Buddha found the path beyond all suffering.
Mahabodhi is at once a monument of profound history and a living heart of the Buddhist faith, revered also within the broader Indian spiritual tradition.
