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After a short flight from Delhi, we arrived in Bodh Gaya, a village in the dry state of Bihar close to where many important events in Buddha’s life occured. Below are a few details of the story that corresponds to the sites that we visited.

The first chapter of the local story involves the Dungeshwari or Mahakala cave. Buddha (actually Guatama Siddhartha at this point) spent 6 or 7 years in this cave meditating in order to attain enlightmenment. This was his ascetic phase where he was seeking enlightment through severe self discipline and denial of all forms of pleasure (including food). A trek takes up a small mountain will take you to a small cave with a Buddhist idol inside.

Realizing he was not going to find enlightment in the cave, Siddhartha wandered down to the village of Bakraur. Sujata, a woman from the village was so distraught to see his emaciated condition that she gave him a bowl of rice pudding helping him understand that ascetism was not a path to enlightenment. A stupa has been erected at the site where Sujata gave Siddhartha the pudding (kheer).

In Bodhgaya, at the site of the modern Mahabodi Temple, Siddhartha sat under a pipal tree where he decided that he would not move until he either found enlightment or died. Upon becoming enlighted, Siddhartha became a Buddha and the pipal tree became know as a Bodhi Tree.