Bodhgaya sights

A fitful sleep, I wake at 8:00, late. Room service omlet, toast, and coffee (they don't do coffee very well here), and I head across the street to the Japanese Temple... but, "Hello Sir!" I hear from the shop a couple doors down it's Ishu, he leads me over to where Sanjeev is milking a cow in front of the shop. I say later I'll go around and go to the Temple, it's a great quiet peaceful place, awesome, plenty of pilgrims coming and going, and there's also a school next door with about 100 kids, ages 3-5, all in uniforms, the boys red the girls blue, they are all smiling and happy and could be a kindergarten anywhere. I snap a few photos and head around to the other side of the complex, where there is a free medical clinic, a line of maybe 100 people threads along the several building front sidewalks. As I'm coming out of the gates, there are my buddies, and they insist on guiding me today. Again I'm skeptical, what are these guys after?

We walk a long block in steamy hot to a small, simple, serene Butt Shinji Temple, featuring a wood Buddha carved by Masahiro Maeda, born 1973, his caption "I'll pray you, Sakyamuni, to lead all the people to live cheerfully, honestly, and peacefully. I pray with all my heart. Can this really be what all the people here are thinking?

Next is the large Buddha statue, 80 feet or so tall, in a nice park, surrounded by statues of disciples. The walls have the broken glass stuck in the top of them to keep people out, must work!

We pass the Daijokyo Vocational training school, sponsored by a Japanese charity, where young people learn to type, make cloth, or cook if there's no university in the future, and that means 95% of the locals.

On the same street is the Daisokyho Buddhist temple, high tall flight of stairs in front, 4 old beggar women and a crippled young man dragging a leg with his hand greet you on your way in and out.

Next door is the Tibet temple, built by the Bhutanese but named for Tibet as a tribute to the many Tibetans in exile living in India. It is an exquisite work of art you have to see and ponder a long time to absorb, colorful art inside and out.

Now Sanjeev rejoins us and says let's take the bike (cycle) for a few places out of town... OK...I'm thinking about all the dacoit (robbery/banditry) in Bihar I read in the guidebook, but what the heck, these kids seem honest. The 3 of us pile onto the Honda Hero 125 and head down the craziness that is a rural india road... past working farms of rice patties, goats and cows milling all around, people working everywhere, doing everything by hand, and into a complex with a huge golden buddha statue under a metal barn type structure, it's maybe 30 feet high, and not finished yet, in the middle of a field down a peaceful path with trees and flowers along the way. A goatherd passes by outside the fence with about 20 goats, and he shouts something to the 3 girl/women hand weeding the field, they laugh and shout back happily. Everyone is happy here, if they're not begging or hawking...

Sanjeev says "now to the Sujata Temple!" one of the oldest, most important temples... we are going through back road villages, and I am getting scared... the "street" is maybe 6 feet wide, houses both sides, no electricity don't even think about running water, dirty clothes on everyone, kids with no pants, I see my first hermaphrodite kids... then we cross a river and we are going out in middle of nowhere, looks like a good place for a robbery! I'm thinking... but the kids are good as gold, we pull up to an old, decrepit site, with unkempt buildings, about a dozen beggar old women and kids at the gate... we push past and see the shrine, at the site Buddha sat for 6 years and did not eat. There are many buildings here and I go to take a picture, no pictures! Shouts an old man, there are about 30 of them under a pavillion, making designs on floor, sweeping, meditating. A string of them is heading down to the river with dishes in hand to wash them. We are not feeling welcome here now they are saying give money, give a donation! Ishu says you do not have to give them anything, pay no mind... and we are out of there. Now it the last village was scary... the next one I am sure I am not coming out... Sanjeev makes a bad turn and we are now on a dirt "street"... although there are no vehicles and the dwellings are about 6 feet apart on each side, a drain between each building has to be negotiated by the 125 cycle with the 3 of us on it, we get stuck once, stall once, and it is looking like a dead end! Luckily there was one more turn off and we see pavement again. One more stop, where Buddha stopped before crossing the river to Bodhgaya... the river is shallow enough people are walking across it and you can see the Mahabhodi temple over there, so thanks Sanjeev, I'm walking back!

Ishu walks with me and we talk, on the Bodhgaya side is a palace a king used to live in, now it's fallen into much disrepair but still has a beautiful shrine with a lion head resting bed in the center, where the king used to hang out maybe. Only the caretakers live here now, and they are again making us feel unwelcome and asking for donations so we are out of there and back up the hill to the Mahabodi temple. A good hour milling around the grounds and sitting peacefully on the marble floor under the Bodi tree and I'm done sightseeing for now, Ishu gets on the phone and Sanjeev drops me at an internet cafe, after a quick stop at the shop for cold club soda and to meet his dad (I didn't get his name it's in Hindi and he spoke no english at all)... Sanjeev asked what time is my train and do I want a ride on his cycle and I say yes sure, I would pay an autorickshaw 100 rupees I'll give him the same! He likes that.

No luck uploading pictures but I will try again later. Tonight 10:22 my train is due in Gaya to Delhi overnight again, but 1st Class AC this time, my first... it cost 1300 rupees to come out 2nd AC, 2600 first class! The ticket seller said the food will be excellent, it's included in the price. Now it's 2:45 hot as blazes black monsoon clouds building maybe a cool breeze will come with the rain that hopefully will fall soon, then lunch, a cold shower and fresh clothes and back out for the last few hours. I love this place... all that worry for nothing, the people are just as they are supposed to be by Buddha's teaching, peaceful, honest, helpful, and totally trustworthy... though I'm still skeptical, its starting to sink in.