8. A Description of Bodh Gayā, from Guide to the Sacred Sites of India, Gendun Chopel

Gendun Chopel’s famous guidebook to the Buddhist holy places in India was published by the Maha Bodhi Society in 1939. Throughout his time in India he kept a close association with the society, publishing essays and poems in its journal, The Maha-Bodhi. His trip to Sri Lanka was likely made with the assistance of the society. It is therefore not surprising that at two places in the guidebook he discusses Anagārika Dharmapāla, the founder of the Maha Bodhi Society. Gendun Chopel was especially inspired by Dharmapāla’s efforts to reclaim and restore Bodh Gayā and Sarnath. Two passages from the guidebook are provided here, one describing Bodh Gayā and Dharmapāla’s efforts there, the second his efforts to restore Sarnath.

THE SMALL STŪPA at the top of the central gaṇḍoli was erected by Nāgārjuna and has one measure of relics of the Teacher inside. Our own Jowo statue in Lhasa is known to have resided in the upper of the two temples in the past. These stone railings around the circumambulation path [of the Mahābodhi Temple] were erected by Nāgārjuna. It is said that one attains various siddhis if one can see the faces of all of the eight protectors and the eight Tārās on the tops of those pillars. They are the ones that look like human faces in the middle of the lotuses.

To the side of the stūpa that is in front of the Bodhi tree is a statue [of the Buddha] smiling upon the Bodhi tree. This is where the Teacher sat in the first week after becoming enlightened. There are footprints in the place where he first stood up in the second week. Then there are five pairs of left and right footprints in the place where he strode. There were footprints on seven stones at the place where he stood up, but these days there are only three—one pair and a single footprint. There are twelve garlands of lotuses on top of a long platform on the northern circumambulation route in the place where the footprints were made.

On the northern side, outside of the stone railing, there are small stūpas with holes in them containing the remains of many arhats. It is explained that if one leaves such things as one’s hair and fingernails there, it closes the door to rebirth in the lower realms. At the side of the enclosure to the east of the [main] stūpa, there is a large stūpa shaped like the central stūpa. This is the place where the Teacher stood when he first arrived. Rays of light emanated from his face and incinerated the trees that were not the real Bodhi tree. It is called the Gaṇḍoli of the Stream of Light. A Bodhi tree called Agaru Bodhi grew from the pile of ashes of the burned trees. Today it is the one beyond the circumambulation path on the north side. At the foot of that tree is the Rasakula spring. The Teacher magically turned its water into quicksilver. It is said to [cure] stomach illness if one drinks from it. Although the spring has not been dug out, the outline is clearly there. Some years ago, a clay facing was made that is still holding. To the south of the central stūpa, there is a very wide platform of earth. It is there that the Teacher cast the grass he sat upon. In the past there was a large structure there that was like the central stūpa.

There is a maṇḍala inside the charnel ground near the eastern fence. Several of our histories say, “The master Buddhajñāna used his mind to erect the stone Kālacakra maṇḍala that exists in Vajrāsana.” I wonder if that is it. Because this connects well with statements by such authors as Chaklo and Jomden Rikrel, it is something that can be believed. It is difficult to say that about many other things.

Furthermore, the period when Chak Choje Pel (1197–1264) came [to Bodh Gayā] was a period when the temple was flourishing. He says that there were continually about three hundred monks there serving as caretakers.

Then, because of the degenerate age, the place [Bodh Gayā] and its sacred relics fell into the hands of tīrthika yogins. They did many unseemly things such as building a non-Buddhist temple in the midst of the stūpas, erecting a statue of Śiva in the temple, and performing blood sacrifices. The lay disciple Dharmapāla was not able to bear this. He died while constantly making great efforts to bring lawsuits and so forth in order that the Buddhists could once again gain possession [of Bodh Gayā]. Still, although that earlier effort continues, up to now the pure outcome [of his efforts] has not come to fruition. Therefore, Buddhists from all of our governments, uniting our deeds and aspirations, must make all possible effort so that this special place of blessings, which is like the heart inside us, will come into the hands of the Buddhists who are its rightful owners.¹⁴⁸

From about the time that the omniscient Butön (1290–1364) lived in our country, the teaching has been destroyed in Madhyadeśa, without anything remaining. It has been that many years. During that time, in general in India, apart from Bodh Gayā, even the names of where the other places are were not known. Specifically, in this area [Sarnath], around sixty years ago there was nothing else other than a temple of the naked tīrthikas [Jains], and the present ruins of the monastery were used to raise pigs. In the end, when it was difficult even to know that this was the place where [the Buddha first] turned the wheel of the dharma, a courageous person arrived from the island of Siṅghala in the south, the great being known as the layman Dharmapāla. Undergoing hundreds of hardships without concern for his body, his life, or his property, he established a temple and the Maha Bodhi Society here in the Deer Park of Ṛṣivadana. From the island of Siṅghala he invited a saṃgha that had all three sections of the vinaya. In Magadha, the Middle Country, those who wore the banner, the robes of the monks of Śākya, were seen again. In the same way, in Bodh Gayā, Calcutta, and foreign capitals such as London, he established temples and saṃgha groups. The latter dissemination of the teaching in India had begun. That great being completed those deeds, which he had taken upon himself and, at the end of that time, he went forth from the home to the homeless life and lived in this very temple [in Sarnath]. Striving at the deeds of the two wheels, he completed his life; it has been five years since this present Fire Ox Year.¹⁴⁹

CHAPTER 8

A Description of Bodh Gayā, from Guide to the Sacred Sites of India