Description of the attraction
Located in the northeastern part of India, in the state of Bihar in the Gaya region, the Mahabodhi Temple is one of the most revered Buddhist religious sites associated with the name of Buddha. It is believed that it was here that he reached the Enlightenment.
According to historians, around 250 BC, 200 years after the emergence of Buddhism, Emperor Ashoka Mauria visited this place and decided to found a monastery and a temple here. It is the ruler Ashoka who is considered the founder of Mahabodhi. But the temple itself, in the form in which it has survived to this day, was built somewhere in the 5th-6th centuries.
The Mahabodhi Temple is rightfully considered one of the most ancient brick buildings in eastern India, which have been preserved to our time. The central tower of the temple rises 55 meters and is decorated with geometric patterns and carved panels. The tower is surrounded by four much smaller towers. On all sides, the building is surrounded by a kind of stone railings, more than two meters high. On the older part, made of sandstone, there are carved images of the Hindu Goddess of Health Lakshmi bathing with elephants and the Sun God Surya, riding in a chariot drawn by four horses. The new part of the banister is decorated with carved figures of lotus flowers and eagles.
The temple was reconstructed at the end of the 19th century, still under British leadership, at the initiative of Sir Alexander Cunningham.
Not far from the sanctuary, at the western wall, the Bo tree, sacred for Buddhists, or, as it is also called, the sacred (religious) ficus, under which the Buddha is believed to have meditated, grows.
The Mahabodhi Temple is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
