Bodh Gaya [India 2020]
Entire Buddhist world in miniature. Around the main Mahabodhi temple, countless temples of Sri Lanka, Bhutan, China, Thailand, Vietnam are built and maintained in their own local style. There was even a monastery with my name "Aparajitha" (Sanskrit: invincible). The whole place can be explored in half a day.
Electronic devices are not allowed inside, due to a series of 10 bombs in 2013. People and monks of all different Buddhist nationalities walk around with masks; specialized restaurants for each cuisine serve (only) those nationalities; even the main monk inside the Maha Bodhi temple was wearing a mask while doing the puja.
I randomly sat in a temple for rest and found Anagarika Darmapala staring at me. Maha Bodhi society was founded by him and part of that temple was opened by President Premadasa.
Bodh Gaya is where Buddha (Siddartha) attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree in 6th c. BCE. The original tree withered some 200 years later (legend says poisoned by Ashoka's wife out of envy). But before that, a part of it is said to have been taken to Sri Lanka and it thrives in Anuradhapura till today. Structures built by Ashoka and railings of Sunga period (150 BCE) became ruins, and are placed in a nearby museum. In Gupta period (5,6 c AD), the current temple was built as a restoration of Ashoka's one. It too was damaged over time and was restored by the British and then by the Indian government.