Bodh Gaya, India
I'll caption these pictures some other time - but here's the scoop: These were taken when I backpacked across India for two months in the fall of 2004. Here you'll see pictures of Bodh Gaya, the place where Buddha found enlightenment. There are pictures of the tree he sat under (really a tree grown from a cutting from a tree that grows in Sri Lanka from a cutting of the actual tree) - but it marks the actual spot he sat on; villagers; the area; the giant Buddha statue; paintings from inside the various monasteries that each country has built; the Tibetan monastery where I had a room; and the GIANT wasps that ate my breakfast with me every day; a nun continuosly pouring grain over a bowl on the grounds of the Bodhi tree.My favorite memories from Bodh Gaya:
Sitting for long spans of time under the tree and thinking, and watching the changing of the guard - Indian Vipassana monks holding their services then getting up and Tibetan monks holding their services right after.Returning to the Tibetan monastery one night to find one of the monks wrestling a goat by its horns, and trying to get it out of the gate before they locked up for the night - I told him to let it stay because maybe it wanted to learn the Dharma and we both had a laugh. I love monks, always good natured and friendly.
Eating at the Old Pole Pole restaurant - a restaurant in a tent - where when I ordered something - be it a fruit lassi or chicken curry, the owner said he'd be right back and then went out to the street market to buy the fruit or a chicken.
Eating in the basement restaraunt of a hotel in Bodh Gaya where they let me have my run of the TV stations and watch Bollywood films because I was the only customer.