Word: bihar
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Going to Bodh Gaya takes not just faith but also a pinch of bravery. The city, like many other key Buddhist sites, is located in the state of Bihar, the poorest and most backward part of India. Pilgrims must endure bad roads, scenes of grinding poverty--and lawlessness. Because Bihar is infested with Maoist guerrillas, all travel has to be completed by evening, and it's insane to be on the roads outside the city at night...
Despite the hazards, the pilgrims keep coming. You can reach Bodh Gaya by flying from New Delhi to Patna, the capital of the state of Bihar, and hiring an SUV for $45 for a bumpy three-hour road trip or by taking a train to the Gaya, half an hour away. You won't find anything remotely like a luxury hotel in Bodh Gaya, but the Lotus Nikko (about $70 a night for a double room) is comfortable. Some monasteries also offer rooms to visitors...
...Bihar is one of the sorriest places on earth. The eastern Indian state is the poorest and most illiterate in the subcontinent. Extortion and gang wars are rife, thousands of people die in floods every few years, and NASA recently discovered a cloud of smog over Bihar five times as dense as that over Los Angeles. It's not a place where you'll find many tourists, and certainly not somewhere you'd expect a center of scholarly excellence...
...Bonaparte." With so few visitors, director Imtiaz Ahmad will dig out his most precious pieces for you to peruse over chai and spicy chips. "The academic traditions of this city will endure," he says. "They are weakened, but not lost." It's almost enough to restore your faith in Bihar...
...Bihar is one of the sorriest places on earth. The eastern Indian state is the poorest and most illiterate in the subcontinent. Extortion and gang wars are rife, thousands of people die in floods every few years, and NASA recently discovered a cloud of smog over Bihar five times as dense as that over Los Angeles. It's not a place where you'll find many tourists, and certainly not somewhere you'd expect a center of scholarly excellence. So the existence of the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library (kblibrary.nic.in), a small pink building in downtown Patna, the state capital...