On the Path to Enlightenment
STORY & PICTURES BY FOONG THIM LENG, The Star, May 1, 2004
Buddhist News Network 5 May 2004 (www.buddhistnews.tv)

Buddhist pilgrims from all over the world make it a point to visit holy sites in India and Nepal at least once in their lifetime. Not only do they discover Buddha's glorious legacy but they also walk in his footsteps. FOONG THIM LENG came away enlightened. 

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia -- The Bodhi tree’s outstretched limbs before the Mahabodhi Temple – a nine-storey, second-century edifice adorned with buddhas and bodhisattvas – were like welcoming arms to all who stood before it.  

Its glossy, heart-shaped leaves, caressed by a light breeze, flickered and sparkled as they caught the dazzling sunlight. 

It was at this exact spot that another Bodhi tree shaded Prince Siddhartha as he sat meditating 2,500 years ago and attained enlightenment. 

This site – said to be the birthplace of Buddhism – attracts millions of pilgrims from all over the world.  

The tree, which is about 200 years old, is believed to be an offshoot of the original tree planted by King Asoka’s daughter some 2,250 years ago. 

A red sandstone slab, named the “Diamond throne”, commemorates the spot where the Buddha sat. 

The Mahabodhi Temple, first constructed as a shrine by King Asoka around 250BC, had been replaced and refurbished several times. It was finally restored by Burmese Buddhists in 1882. 

My companions and I visited this site in Bodh Gaya in a trip led by Bhante Dikpal, a Theravadin monk . We were awed by the tree. It felt emotional just to be standing here.  

Bodh Gaya, a town in Bihar, north-east India, is one of the places many Buddhists make a pilgrimage to.  

The other places are Lumbini , where Buddha was born; Sarnath, where he turned the wheel of Dhamma (delivered his first sermon); and Kusinara, where he attained parinibbana (release from the endless cycle of rebirth). 

As a child, I had read about Buddha’s enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. So making this pilgrimage was a dream come true. However, the journey to Bodh Gaya wasn’t all that smooth. We had some near-misses as our van weaved at manic speed around people, poultry, dogs, cows, elephants, camels, bicycles, motorcycles, horse-carts and rickshaws on the narrow, pothole-riddled roads. 

Everyone seemed to drive with one finger on the horn for the cacophony of honks coming from them was deafening. 

The air in the sweltering heat smelled of diesel, dust, burnt cow dung, toxic chemicals, sweat and sandalwood. 

On the outskirts of Bodh Gaya, in the hot and dusty countryside, we saw men in white dhotis guide ploughs drawn by water buffaloes through a patchwork of brown and green fields. 

Golden haystacks shaped like stupas were stacked next to fields of mustard and lentil. 

Women in saris performed various chores: sweeping, threshing, weeding, collecting water. Some plaited hair or carried huge loads of produce on their heads. The cow dung drying on the walls of the mud-and-straw houses would later be used as fuel.  

Chickens, pigs and goats wandered in the compound while children played cricket or flew kites nearby. 

The people we met at Bodh Gaya came from all walks of life: the rich and poor, religious and secular, the outcasts and the exalted. 

The atmosphere inside the temple’s grounds was one of peace as Theravadins, Mahayanists and Vajarayanists chanted in various tones, sometimes accompanied by the tinkling of bells and the gentle beating of drums. 

Pilgrims sat in quiet meditation, circumambulated the stupas, or paid homage to the Buddha by offering flowers and lighting candles and oil lamps. 

Under the trees, athletic Tibetan men in singlets flung themselves to the ground, completing hundreds of prostrations. 

Within the temple’s grounds, pilgrims also paid homage at six other holy sites – the Animeshalochana stupa near the temple’s main entrance, where Buddha stood gazing at the Bodhi tree for seven days after gaining enlightenment; the Chanka Ramana where he spent seven days walking up and down in meditation; another stupa where he sat and contemplated under a banyan tree; the site where he told a Brahmin that “one becomes a Brahmin by one’s deeds and not by birth’’; the lake where the snake king Calinda sheltered him from a storm with its hood; and the site where two merchants took refuge and became his first followers. 

Outside, the hotels and temples built by believers from Japan, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Indonesia, South Korea and Germany contrasted sharply with the squalor of the clustered shacks of the local people.  

During our journey, we stayed in temples which offered vegetarian meals, clean lodgings and even hot baths, each time giving a small donation to show our gratitude when we left.  

Our next destination was Rajgir, a three-hour drive away, and the capital of the Magadha kingdom during the Buddha’s time. 

Rajgir’s king Bimbisara, who was sympathetic to the Buddha’s teachings, provided the sangha (monks) with land known as the Bamboo Grove. It became a haven for the Buddha and his disciples during the rainy season. 

Two caves on Vaibhara hill are said to be holy sites. The higher cave, said to be the Buddha’s residence for 12 years, was where he delivered his message of peace to the world.  

The summit of the Gridhrakuta hill or Vulture’s Peak was the Buddha’s favourite place of meditation. 

We paid 15 rupees (RM1) for a ride in a cable chair to Vulture’s Peak and found the enormous peace stupa built by the Japanese monk Nichidatsu Fujii. 

Fujii, the founder of the Nipponsan Myohoji Buddhist Order, built “peace stupas” at various holy places in India to fulfil his spiritual vision for world peace. 

The creaky ride may scare the faint-hearted because the chairs and cables are old. Later we visited the ruins of a prison where King Bimbisara was jailed by his son Ajatasattu who was impatient to inherit the throne. 

We rushed back to the Burmese temple we were staying in as it was late. We had been advised not to travel in remote areas at night as the nearby hills were also home to bandits.  

Our next stop was Nalanda, a village on the main road north of Ragjir. There was an international monastic university here in the 7th century. 

Students came from India, Tibet, China, Java, Sri Lanka and Korea to study here. Today, the ruins of the chambers and temples which could accommodate 10,000 monks only serve as a reminder to visitors of its glory days. 

From Rajgir, it took us eleven hours by van to reach Kusinara, the Buddha’s final resting place. The Buddha is said to have fallen ill after eating bad food outside Kusinara.  

Near the Lind Sonh Vietnamese temple we stayed in was the Nirvana Temple which houses the six metre-long statue of Buddha in parinibbana. The statue dates from the 5th century. 

The statue was carved out of a single block of reddish sandstone. The cremation stupa is located 500m away. 

Although the Buddhist sites are run by the Archaeological Survey of India, there are donation boxes at the temples and men in robes asking for money.  

We were informed by our guide, however, that giving money to these bogus monks would encourage corruption.  

Our next destination was Lumbini, across the border in Nepal. The 174km journey took three hours. At the immigration centre, we found that we didn’t have to pay the visa fee of US$20 (RM76) as we would be in Lumbini fewer than three days. 

We visited the Sacred Grove where Queen Mayadevi (Prince Siddharta’s mother) had given birth.  

Within the eight sq km Sacred Grove are grand temples built by several nations to foster international peace and brotherhood.  

It took us six hours to cross the border to Sravasti – another Indian holy site – to visit the Ananthapindika park, which contains a Bodhi tree planted from the seed of the original tree in Bodh Gaya. 

A 2,500-year-old well, opposite the ruins of the main temple, used to be the monastery’s main source of drinking water.  

Our last destination before returning to Bodh Gaya was Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh, eight hours away by car. This was where Buddha delivered his first sermon to his five disciples after his enlightenment in the Deer Park. 

The Dharmekha stupa, a massive structure measuring 28m in diameter and 33m in height, marks the spot where the Buddha delivered his first sermon. Devotees circled it and sat in meditation while a few stuck gold paper on the walls. 

We recited the first sermon, the Dhamacakkapavatthava sutta under the Bodhi tree on our last evening in Sarnath. The intense spirituality we felt moved a few to tears.