Photo: Bpilgrim · CC BY-SA 2.5
Best: Oct–Mar
Bodh Gaya marks the exact spot of the Buddha's awakening, and the continuity is startling: the Bodhi tree behind the Mahabodhi Temple is a direct descendant of the original, replanted from a sapling of the tree that Ashoka's daughter Sanghamitta carried to Sri Lanka in the third century BCE. Ashoka raised the first shrine here; the fifty-five-metre brick tower you see today is essentially a Gupta-period building of the sixth century, restored in the 1880s and inscribed by UNESCO in 2002. Inside sits a gilded Buddha in the earth-touching gesture, facing east as he did that night.
Around the temple are seven stations marking the weeks after the enlightenment, among them the Animeshlocha Stupa where he gazed unblinking at the tree, and the Ratnachankramana, the jewelled walk. The compound is at its best before six in the morning, when Tibetan monks perform full-length prostrations on wooden boards, Sri Lankan pilgrims chant in Pali, and the leaves of the Bodhi tree turn over in the first light. Outside, the town is a map of the Buddhist world: Thai, Japanese, Bhutanese, Burmese and Vietnamese monasteries, each in its own architecture, and an eighty-foot sandstone Buddha consecrated by the Dalai Lama in 1989.
Cross the sandy Falgu to the Sujata Stupa, where a village girl fed the starving ascetic the rice milk that ended his austerities.
Best Oct–Mar
October to March; the Dalai Lama often teaches here in December or January.
Give Bodh Gaya 2 days and it repays the time; with fewer you are choosing between Mahabodhi Temple and the Bodhi tree at dawn and The Vajrasana diamond throne and the seven sacred stations. We build the hours around the weather — early starts when it is hot, long afternoons when it is not.
On the ground
The days we would actually plan for you, in the order that suits the light.
At the table
VegetarianBihar
Wheat balls stuffed with roasted sattu, ajwain, mustard oil and pickle masala, baked over coal or cow-dung cakes until charred, cracked open and dipped in ghee. The chokha beside it is roasted brinjal, tomato and potato mashed with raw mustard oil and green chilli. Patna sells it by the roadside every evening.
Getting there
Gaya International Airport (GAY) is 8 km away, with seasonal flights from Bangkok, Yangon and Colombo; Gaya Junction is 13 km, and Patna is 105 km by road.
Airport pickups, station transfers and the driver for the days here are all part of what we arrange — including the hour you should leave, which is usually earlier than you think.
Next door
Places that join Bodh Gaya without a long drive — the way a real week is built.
HeritageBihar
Magadha's hill-ringed first capital, holy to Buddhists and Jains
HeritageBihar
Red-brick ruins of the world's first residential university
CityBihar
Ancient Pataliputra on the Ganga, now Bihar's loud, layered capital
RiverUttar Pradesh
The oldest living city, waking on the Ganga
1 journey
7 days · 6 nightsEasy · Best Oct–Mar
Bodh Gaya to Sarnath, where the Buddha woke and first taught
Route: Bodh Gaya → Rajgir → Nalanda → Varanasi +1 more
From the journal
· Culture · 6 min
One full day on the ghats of Banaras, hour by hour: the pre-dawn boat, the walk from Assi to Manikarnika, the lanes behind Kashi Vishwanath, the kachori and malaiyo worth queueing for, and where to sit for the evening aarti.
Before you ask
Photograph of Bodh Gaya: Bpilgrim · CC BY-SA 2.5
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