About Bodh Gaya
The Site of Enlightenment
On the western bank of the Niranjana River in what is now the Gaya district of Bihar, a young man named Siddhartha Gautama sat beneath a fig tree one night some 2,500 years ago and attained complete awakening. That tree — or more precisely, a direct descendant of it, preserved through a continuous tradition of care — still grows in the same location. The temple complex that has grown around it, the Mahabodhi Temple, is among the most significant surviving Buddhist structures in the world. For Buddhists of every tradition, Bodh Gaya is the centre of the earth.
