Word: bodh
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...tree in Bodh Gaya, a town in eastern India, is the holiest place in all Buddhism. According to local lore, the tree is a direct descendant of the bodhi (a type of fig tree) where a prince named Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment 2 1/2 millenniums ago and became the Buddha. Today Buddhism is a religion associated with East Asia--with Thailand, China or Japan--where most of the world's Buddhists live. Yet Buddhism began in India at that very spot. The Buddha was born in Lumbini, Nepal, lived in eastern India, attained enlightenment in Bodh Gaya and then wandered...
...sacred tree at Bodh Gaya is holy ground, but pilgrims also went to see Sarnath, where the Buddha preached his first sermon; Rajgir, where he came to meditate during the monsoons; Vaishali, where the beautiful courtesan Amrapali made him a gift of a mango grove; and Kushinagar, where, lying on a bed under two trees, he died. Buddhism withered in India in the Middle Ages; the great temples and monasteries were destroyed by invaders and the pilgrims stopped coming. In the 19th century, pilgrims from Burma and Sri Lanka rediscovered the trail, renovated and rebuilt ruined monasteries and temples...
These days it is again becoming a booming tourist trail. Officials of the temple at Bodh Gaya estimate that 15,000 foreigners come each year to see the holy tree. Peak season is from November to March, when the temperature drops, but there are pilgrims year round. "It's very peaceful here. It's easy to meditate," says Sato Yuji, 41, a Buddhist from Japan who has visited Bodh Gaya regularly for the past decade...