Pilgrimage site looks to better days ahead

India’s Buddhist temple city of Bodh Gaya longs for renewed influx of international tourists

Much like the content of soft chants heard at the city’s main temple, the people of Bodh Gaya are counting on brighter days ahead, after some pain.

Around 500 kilometers from Kolkata, Bodh Gaya, in India’s eastern state of Bihar, is considered one of the world’s sacred Buddhist sites.

It was here that Lord Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment beneath a sacred Bodhi tree adjacent to the main temple, according to Buddhist scholars. Its Mahabodhi Temple Complex is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

In the week leading up to the biggest Buddhist festival celebrated worldwide, Buddha Purnima — on May 16 this year in India and Nepal — there are fewer crowds than before, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Rakesh Kumar, president of the Bodh Gaya Tourist Guide Association. Tourist inflows are slow, numbering in the few hundreds daily, compared with 5,000 to 8,000 domestic and international tourists daily three years ago before the two weeks of the festival.

Buddha Purnima, also known as Buddha Jayanti, celebrates the birth of Siddhartha Gautama over 3,000 years ago — a prince (circa 563-483 BC) who later went on to become known as Lord Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. The spiritual leader is known to many Chinese as Sakyamuni.

According to Buddhist scholars, it was agreed in May 1950 at the first conference of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, that the festival would be celebrated officially as an auspicious event.

Chinese Consul General to Kolkata Zha Liyou has highlighted the importance of Bodh Gaya as a major tourist destination for China, and expressed optimism that Bodh Gaya has the potential to bring a renewed influx of tourists from China. Many Chinese want to travel to Bodh Gaya, but the COVID-19 pandemic has stalled tourist inflows since March 2020.

Speaking from Kolkata, Zha said the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Bodh Gaya had been one of the major tourist destinations for Chinese before the pandemic.

Besides Bodh Gaya, other places like Nalanda, Rajgir, Vaishali and Patna, state capital of Bihar, and many stupas across the state are favorite tourist destinations for Chinese, Zha said.

Zha, who has traveled to Bodh Gaya three times since assuming office in Kolkata in 2019, has expressed the hope that domestic and international tourists to Bodh Gaya will increase soon.

“I look forward to the future influx of tourists from China. My office is willing to facilitate cultural exchange to strengthen tourist inflow between the two countries,” the consul general said.

Zha, during his visits, organized many cultural and religious events in Bodh Gaya in collaboration with Chinese communities from Kolkata. As the world’s largest Buddhist country, China is historically and culturally connected to Buddhism.

Members of the Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee, senior government officials, local tourist guides and legislators are also hoping that the past two years’ low tourist inflows will change in the near future.

Local people who survive directly or indirectly on earnings from the tourism and hotel industries have been badly hit, with international flight services to Bodh Gaya airport suspended since March 2020.

Gaya airport, a restricted international airport 5 km from the temple, used to operate flight services from Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

Domestic flights from Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai to Gaya airport are operating now. Thailand and Myanmar have expressed interest in resuming flight services from September this year, said Gaya airport director Bangjeet Saha. Three Pacific Airlines chartered flights from Vietnam, carrying pilgrims and tourists, had landed at Gaya airport since March, Saha said.

With central and state government assistance, many beautification drives have been initiated in and around Bodh Gaya, said Vijay Kumar, an Indian Member of Parliament from Gaya. A ring road from Patna to Bodh Gaya will soon reduce traffic congestion, and the local government has started desilting Niranjana river, a sacred river for both Hindus and Buddhists, Kumar said, adding that a proposal has been sent to the federal civil aviation minister asking for international flight services to resume.

Last October, India’s federal tourism ministry announced plans to develop Bodh Gaya as a year-round tourist destination.