2-2-09

We woke up extraordinarily late – 11:00 am. It was wonderful. Since it was so late, we almost immediately went out for lunch. We were trying to find the Om café, which was recommended in the Lonely Planet, but got confused and went to the Tibet Om Café. I think our confusion was understandable, but it also turned out to be beneficial. I have no idea why the Tibet Om is not in the lonely planet; the food is delicious and the staff is very nice. I ordered momo and Tibetan steamed bread with honey. I was a bit nervous about the idea of steamed bred, but it was just what I felt like. While it is, in itself, a bit bland, the honey makes it excellent. And the momos were an delicious break from Indian curry. I was beginning to forget what “savory” tastes like.
There are many Buddhist temples here in Bodghgaya, each from a different country. Tomorrow, we will take a bicycle rickshaw around the town and visit the Thai, Bhutanese, Burmese, Chinese, Tibetan, and Japanese temples. I am eagerly looking forward to this architectural and religious tour. After lunch today however, Mom and I simply went to the Mahabodhi Monastery, the monastery surrounding the Bodhi tree, under which the Buddha attained enlightenment. By pure chance and extreme good luck, we are here for the three days out of the year when some Tibetan Buddhist relics are on display. There were thousands of monks wandering around in maroon robes, a testament to the vitality of Tibetan Buddhism.
The Bodhi tree here is, in fact, a sprig of the original tree. Banyans are the type of trees that send out tendrils from many branches. When these tendrils reach the ground, they thicken into new tree trunks, which makes transplanting many banyan trees is easy. The present tree is actually the sprig from the Bodhi tree which was brought to Sri Lanka by Emperor Ashoka’s daughter in the 3rd Century BC. The tree at Saranath, the Deer Park, is also a sprig of this tree.
As Mom and I circled around the stupa and around the tree, I was constantly in awe of the spiritual rigor of the people surrounding me. Old men and women who could barely walk were tottering around, muttering prayers and counting prayer beads. Young monks were making prostration after prostration. There were many boy monks could not have been older than four or five and, while some were playing together and laughing quietly, some were chanting along with their elders, obviously lost in prayer. Both of us were taken aback by the absolute beauty of the place and the people and the chanting. Mom was convinced she had entered Paradise, but I couldn’t help thinking that we weren’t quite there yet. It would only have been paradise if we could perfectly understand the beauty we were witnessing, rather than just being able to appreciate that it was beautiful.
One of the nicest moments for me happened inside the stupa. I was leaving after having greeted the Buddha inside and saw a girl, about my age, in skin-tight jeans and a flashy t-shirt. I automatically dismissed her as some irreverent nobody because of her fashionable clothes but as I glanced up at her face I realized that she was praying just as fervently as the monk standing next to her. It was a good reminder to me not to judge people by their exterior façade and never to assume that I am superior to them because of the clothes I am wearing. After circling the temple once and seeing the Bodhi tree up close, Mom decided to circle everything again, taking as many pictures as she could. I decided that it would be better for me to preserve the beauty of our previous circuit so I sat on a hill overlooking the tree and the temple and the praying monks to wait for her. After some time, she joined me and we sat together in silence for a while before returning to the hotel.