In The Footsteps Of Lord Buddha: Bodhgaya-Rajgir-Nalanda
Fittingly, our journey through the life of Buddha starts where it all began, in the revered town of Bodhgaya. It was here that Buddha experienced The Enlightenment, meditated at length to define the principles of a life “free from ignorance, craving and suffering” by attaining a state of nirvana through meditation, and set in motion the path which was to become Buddhism.
It was in this modest town that Siddhartha Gautama, Lord Buddha as he was to become, troubled by the direction of his life, sought solace by taking some time out to think things through and rationalise life, the universe and everything. This period of contemplation incorporated abstinence from food: until a local lady, Sujata, brought a bowl of milk pudding (milk, rice and sugar), heralding the start of Lord Buddha’s enlightenment. Consequently, Sujata Garh, and its 8th or 9th century stupa commemorating the residence of this benevolent lady, are highly revered, as indeed is milk pudding.
Finding inspiration from his thoughts, the Lord Buddha undertook seven weeks of deep meditation, seven days in each of seven different adjacent sites close to Bodhgaya, where now stands the impressive Mahabodhi Temple. Upon completion of these seven weeks, the Enlightenment was complete and Buddhism was effectively born.
Visiting all of Bodhgaya’s major sites is fascinating yet also just a little bit baffling. Many people, both monks and other visitors, sit in deep meditation, or chant solemnly in groups or alone, whilst literally thousands of visitors per day shuffle slowly past them, sometimes passing within inches of their crouched bodies. Meditation in a madding crowd. How powerful the trained mind must be to achieve such detachment.
After a decent night’s sleep away from the train in a Bodhgaya hotel, we head out next morning, by road not rail, to Rajgir, where a full morning’s activity takes in Gridhakur Hill, Bimbimsara Jail and the beautiful gardens of Venuvan, all further significant sites in Lord Buddha’s life. Gridhakur, with its sacred caves, was one of five hills on which Buddha delivered teachings to his disciples, the jail the site of one of his most caring acts, the release of an imprisoned king, and Venuvan the first gift received by Lord Buddha from royalty.
Venuvan, as well as being delightfully laid out and a site of deep reverence, is home to troupes of monkeys – the younger ones playful, the seniors slightly menacing with their bared teeth and grating growls. Our next port of call after Venuvan is Nalanda, where the ruins of a hugely extensive Buddhist university have been excavated over a wide area of peaceful country, but for us is also where the less palatable side of group travel kicks in.
Had we been undertaking this tour independently, our time allocation would have been significantly different: Nalanda is an absorbing and fascinating place featuring many hidden inscriptions and many clues as to its crucial part in the evolution of Buddhist history, and there’s no doubt we would have spent half a day here. It’s also incredibly well preserved, having been buried beneath the ground until its 20th century re-discovery. It was here that the Buddhist mantras were turned into a way of life, where students and disciples flocked from far and wide to learn, and engage with, the high standards of personal betterment which were, and are, the pillars of the faith.
But such is the world of “sheep flock tourism” that we are hurried through disappointingly quickly, all because, as far as we can see, we spent too much time at less interesting locations earlier in the day.
Our bus passes through many places where we wish we could stop and spend a short while: bustling towns with multiple food stalls, agricultural centres teeming with activity, remote rural settings where children, goats and cows fill their day. Michaela grabs some photo opportunities through the coach window, but how good would it be to stop off and spend a little time in some of these enthralling places.
Who would our fellow passengers on this journey be, we had wondered. Most, it turns out, are older couples from other parts of India – Mumbai, Hyderabad etc – alongside only a handful of Westerners other than ourselves, all of whom are male solo travellers. Interestingly, all of them, Patrick, Bob and Kouyate, all coincidentally from New York state, and Ben from Leicester (England), are, like us, first timers on a group tour and, like us, normally travel independently.
Darkness falls as the coach heads the three hours back towards the train waiting at Gaya and the evening fires are burning now in the rural villages. As we make a bathroom stop at a remote temple in the darkness, a couple of children with pleading, sorrowful eyes hold out their hands and rub their tummies to indicate hunger. Earlier, we had each been handed a box of snack food, completely superfluous as three decent meals a day are included in the tour cost.
I suggest to Michaela that we take our food boxes out to the children. Others on the bus overhear me, and within minutes a group of us are handing out most of the bus’s food to grateful little hands. More and more children arrive and dutifully sit in line, awaiting their allocation, then feasting, chatting and giggling in equal measure. Mothers in saris stand by and smile.
There are many pairs of begging hands at every turn in India, many families sleeping rough in the cities, many, many people with nothing. As you travel, you simply cannot help them all and you build a kind of emotional shield as you walk by. On occasions such as this with the children, the shield is broken and your heart releases emotions like a flood. We both have a lump in our throat as we wave goodbye to their smiling, grateful faces. They disappear into the darkness and we are gone.
And so we are learning of the Enlightenment, learning of the birth of Buddhism, and of the historic places, though as yet there has been little by way of introduction to the laws and beliefs of the faith itself – but as our fellow passengers are keen to share such things with novices like us, we are learning in stages from the mouths of the devout.
With the early days of Lord Buddha’s life behind us, we settle down in our bunk beds as the train hauls slowly out of Gaya and commences the next overnight journey. Next stop Varanasi.
24 Comments
Laura
Nalanda looks like a fascinating place to explore- that is disappointing that you weren’t able to linger- I have felt this pain before with group travel. Love the scenes you were able to capture from the windows of the bustling markets and daily life of the locals. Safe travels to Varanasi!
Phil & Michaela
Cheers Laura!
Monkey's Tale
Love the grey langurs of course, too bad the tour is blasting through some fascinating places. Maggie
Phil & Michaela
Ha yes the young ones were very playful!
WanderingCanadians
Seems like a natural place to start to learn more about the early days of Buddhism and how it all began. It’s incredible how many historic sites there are in Bodhgaya. One of the downsides to being on a tour group is that you’re not able to go at your own pace. It’s too bad that you didn’t have more time to explore Nalanda. But at the same time, if it weren’t for the tour group, you might not have even known that some of these places existed.
Phil & Michaela
That is very true!
Toonsarah
I know what you mean exactly about the frustrations of the timings dictated by group travel. The worst is when you are forced to spend time in a shop where you have absolutely no inclination to purchase anything, knowing that it will impact on how long you can stay in the next much more interesting place. That’s why, even though we like the reassurance and efficiency of pre-booking a lot of our trips, we choose tailor-made tours for just the two of us so that we can negotiate timings with our guide and ask our driver to stop for photo opps. Of course for something like this train journey that wouldn’t be possible so I guess you just have to suck it up 😏
On another note, I’m so glad you shared your food with those children. Usual advice is not to give to beggars because you can’t possibly help them all and you raise expectations you can’t meet. But sometimes that advice has to be ignored and this was clearly one of those time.
Phil & Michaela
Those frustrations have actually got worse as the journey progressed, as you’ll see. As for the children, it as definitely the moment to choose to do something, a rural setting rather than beggars in town…and you just see so many desperately poor people here.
Mike and Kellye Hefner
This is such an interesting post. I know nothing about Buddhism or Buddha, and I look forward to hearing more about what you learn on your trek. Nalanda would’ve been a great place to explore further, and I’m sorry you didn’t get to delve into it as much as you would’ve liked. Michaela, your bus window shots turned out great!
Phil & Michaela
Cheers Kellye, thank you. Yes, this group travel thing is a bit of a mixed bag…great theme, great locations, some frustrating elements.
grandmisadventures
It was really fascinating to read about the beginning of Buddhism. What an incredible experience to follow in his steps. Even though you can’t help everyone in need, what a tender moment to help those you can. 🙂
Phil & Michaela
It was indeed tender
leightontravels
Much like the Buddha I feel “enlightened”. It all sounds so fascinating and something we’d loved to see. It’s just a pity that they get the balance of time allocation so wrong and that there is just too much rushing. But that’s the nature of the beast I suppose. You did a great thing with the children, the scenes you describe feel so familiar, bringing back my own memories of India. How I wish I’d had my own snack boxes on hand. Michaela did a great job of grabbing those rural/roadside scenes.
Phil & Michaela
Cheers bud, yeah we didn’t really take to group travel, far better when we’re in control of our own timing. We’re back in Delhi now and the feeling of freedom to explore is very welcome.
Lookoom
I remember my trip to India, when the bus stopped to photograph people in the fields, they would come running to beg, ruining the photo opportunities. I would like to travel with an invisibility cloak at times.
Phil & Michaela
We know exactly what you mean
Christie
Rural India is famous for poverty I believe, and it was a sad part of your trip to see all those children begging along the streets. Giving them your snacks was the best idea; we do that the same where possible. It’s always a mix of feelings during these long trips..
Phil & Michaela
Not just the rural – there’s a truly shocking amount of poverty, and homeless, in the cities too. One of the characteristics which make India a different kind of experience
Alison
I’m going backwards on your trip! I haven’t been looking at emails or my blog for a while with my mind being elsewhere due to family health issues.
Anyway again love all the photos and I agree how frustrating going on tours is. We have taken day tours and you end up wanting to walk away and get on with looking and waking around on your own. At least you haven’t been held captive yet at a factory or gift shop!
Phil & Michaela
Yes exactly, we wanted to just break free and do our own thing so often. Hope your family issues aren’t too major x
Annie Berger
Phil,
Since I’m so far behind reading your posts, I wonder if I missed one which indicated why you chose to take a group tour to discover the origins of Buddhism rather than try and do it independently as is your normal style. Was it a matter of the tour encompassed more than you could just as easily entail?
Another insightful post on so many levels that i thoroughly enjoyed. Looking forward to reading about Varanasi through your eyes and Michaela’s lens as that was the first city in India I saw with Steven many years ago.
Phil & Michaela
Well, long answer alert! Firstly – yes, it would be difficult to cover all of those places in that time frame without it being an organised tour. But also, I am a huge fan of rail travel and really liked the idea of a “train cruise”, especially with sleeping on board. But really, we were in Panama and just planning the South East Asia tour which we are currently on, when the email about the Buddha train dropped into my inbox. (I’m still on the mailing list from our India trip of 2017). So when we realised that the Buddha tour ended in Delhi, and there were direct flights from Delhi to Hanoi (our known start point for SE Asia) it all seemed to fall perfectly into place!
Anshumali
The pics are so beautiful and realistic that these pics speak volumes about glorious past, ravages made, religious practices in vogue along with the actual state of Indian people.
Phil & Michaela
Thank you 🙏