Word: bodh
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...Americans and Europeans also visit. "You can feel thousands of years of prayers vibrating in the air," says Manu Hari, a Swiss-born convert to Buddhism who is meditating near the temple. With every major Buddhist community from Sri Lanka to Japan having constructed a monastery in the city, Bodh Gaya has virtually turned into a United Nations of Buddhism; at night, as Tibetan monks cycle around to buy groceries, the streets resound with gongs being struck from inside the various monasteries...
...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...
...Bodh Gaya has benefited the most, but the pilgrim business, like a magic wand, is transforming places all along the Buddhist circuit. Kushinagar, in Uttar Pradesh, appears at first glance to be another no-hope town: many of the sugar mills that employed the townspeople have recently closed, and unemployment is rampant. Yet the town is seeing a real estate boom, roads are markedly better than anywhere around and children go to well-maintained schools. Kushinagar is where the Buddha died, and pilgrims come to see the gilded statue that commemorates the spot where the Buddha attained nirvana as well...
Still, amid the hassles and dangers, there are, for the faithful, moments of transcendent beauty. Second only to Bodh Gaya in importance on the pilgrimage circuit is Sarnath, where the Buddha went after his enlightenment to meditate in a deer park and preach for the first time. By daytime the deer park is unimpressive. As the sun sets, though, the brick ruins of the monasteries glow incandescently amid the lush green grass. Just beyond the park's walls, a peacock climbs the roof of a Burmese Buddhist monastery to watch the sunset. In the other corner, near a statue...