Bodh Gaya Day 2
Trip Start
Dec 27, 2006
1
12
19
Trip End
Jan 25, 2007
Bodh Gaya,
India
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Bodh Gaya welcomed a very weary group of travelers. After a long train ride (on which we were scheduled for the wrong day and had to spread out throughout the train) we arrived at our hotel - more populated with mosquitoes than people. The locals try to be accomodating, and I'm not sure they understand our fear of the tiny insect.
Our tour guide is exceptional, a Master in Buddhist Studies, he has been incredibly informative. Maybe more-so than our weary minds can absorb.
Despite all this, being in Bodh Gaya, the place of the Buddha's enlightenment, is thrilling. The Tibetan Karmapa is here and the village is dense with Tibetan Buddhist monks. We circumambulated the Bodhi Tree and the Maha Buddha Temple, with ample explanation of the life of the Buddha throughout. The intersection of Buddhism and Hinduism is facinating, can clarifies so much of what we are learning in the west.
Judith and I took turns crying under that famous tree. Followed, of course, by many pictures.
The group has scattered for a few hours this afternoon. Ellen and Judith are off to find the perfect Buddha statue, Devan is taking a nap. I have just toured a few of the many many temples surrounding the Maha Bodhi Temple, and am sitting next to a Tibetan Monk as a cyber cafe - which mostly resembles a room in a long forgotten basement back home. Some are shopping, having learned the language of the hockers (hawkers?).
Tonight we sit under the Bodhi Tree for the evening chant. I anticipate - with all the Tibetan monks here now - it will be rich with "multiphonic" chants, horns, bells and incense.
Take good care my friends. We look foreword to being with you soon.
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Comments
Coming Home
I am so excited you are coming home soon and will have many wonderful tales to tell us. Your latest entry sounds fascinating. For some reason my server is down so I am using Forbes' computer to check your log and to write. Glad we have both.
The other day it was 65 degrees. Felt like summer. Tomorrow we are suppose to have some snow flakes. Painting has started and it is so hard. I have to try a new something or other but don't know what. Ciao, Carolyn
Barbets at Bodh Gaya
Hi kids,
My strongest memory of Bodh Gaya was, of course, of a bird. It was a Coppersmith Barbet (so named because they make a noise like a coppersmith smithing) perched on the famous Bodhi tree. We exchanged glances for a bit. There was god, and she was beautiful!!
peace and love,
John