Projects to Restore & Beautify Bodh Gaya

CONSTRUCTION OF PERMANENT KITCHEN AND DINING HALL (Under Development)

To date, LBDFI - India has sponsored the construction of public toilet and showers for the people of Bodhgaya. This year we plan to construct a public kitchen which will serve pilgrims, monastic groups, and local people alike in providing food near the Kalachakra Ground where great gatherings are held alongside the Mahabodhi Mahavihara itself.  This will be the first time that the central place of pilgrimage in the Buddhist world has had a public kitchen and will be a great improvement in public amenities at this most holy place. 

CONSTRUCTION OF PUBLIC TOILETS AND SHOWERS

LBDFI is committed to improving the facilities for pilgrims and local people at all the sacred sites of the Buddhist heritage of India, the Aryadesha. As a first step in this program, the Foundation has constructed and opened a new public toilet and shower facility in Bodhgaya close to the Mahabodhi temple complex. Opened to the public in a brief ceremony in February 2007, it is fully staffed by a local caretaker family who will be funded annually to take care of this facility. These toilets and showers benefit all the locals in Bodhgaya.

BUTTER LAMP HOUSES IN BODHGAYA

Offering lamps at sacred sites has always been important to the Buddhist tradition. Several years ago, the Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee asked that the burning of butter lamps be moved from directly beneath the Bodhi Tree, as the health of the tree was beginning to suffer due to the large number of pilgrims making such offerings. Over a period of three years, from 2003 to 2005, a series of seven dedicated facilities were constructed to the south of the Mahabodhi Temple. Recently an eighth house was completed and the whole complex tiled. The spacious houses make it possible to offer 60,000 butter lamps each day.

INSTALLATION OF WORLD PEACE BELL AT BODHGAYA

Every morning and evening, the sound of the great Peace Bell at Bodhgaya rings out over the Temple Compound in Bodhgaya. Installed in 2007, this monument for World Peace stands in its own pavilion in the meditation park to the South West of the main temple spire. The arch of the bell was gold leafed in 2009 and it stands surrounded by beautiful gardens and fountains.

CONSTRUCTION OF CREMATION GROUND IN BODH GAYA

Cremations occur along the edge of the Nairanjana River in Bodhgaya but there has never been a covered facility to allow cremations to occur during the monsoon months. There is such a facility in Gaya, but it is 12 miles away and the poor people from Bodhgaya region often lack the funds to take their deceased relatives to this location. As a result, for many years bodies have simply been thrown into the river during the monsoon months because cremation fires cannot be kept burning during the heavy rains. Becoming aware of this situation, LBDFI donated the funds for the construction of a metal canopy and concrete stand to allow cremations to occur undercover along with the installation of a water pump and steps down to the Nairanjana river to offer ashes. The new facility is expected to open in September 2010.

GILDING OF THE MAHABODHI TEMPLE SPIRE

In the spring of 2010, Light of Buddhadharma Foundation International in collaboration with the Tibetan Nyingma Meditation Centre, became aware that some of the decorative elements on the spire of the Mahabodhi Mahavihara were coming loose and were a potential danger to pilgrims visiting the temple. The Bodhgaya Temple management committee immediately approached UNESCO and the ASI and no objections were raised to a project to repair and renovate the spire of the temple. Accordingly in September of 2010 LBDFI sponsored the erection of a scaffold tower on the west face of the temple to allow access to the spire itself, which rises 198 feet above the surrounding area.

A team of experienced metalworkers from Kathamandu were invited to undertake the renovation and began work in October 2010. New copper plates were fabricated to repair missing or damaged elements, new leaf and triratna ornaments were constructed and mounted on the outer rings, and the entire structure was gold gilded to protect from acid rain damage in the traditional manner. Judging from the age and condition of the spire structure, it is possible that this was the first full gilding program carried out on the spire since medieval times, although repairs to the copper itself were made when the spire was re-erected in the nineteenth century. The new spire was opened on October 29th, the great offering day of Buddha’s descent from the heavenly realms, to great rejoicing by all of the monastic institutions located in Bodhgaya. A ceremony attended by hundreds of Theravadin and Tibetan monks greeted the opening, and new floodlighting lit the newly golden spire for the first time.

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