Shakyamuni buddha gaya temple

Four Sacred Buddhist Sites (II)

BODHI ADMIN - Posted on January 10, 2020 - 2,145 Views

Bodh Gaya is the place where we can find the site of the Bodhi Tree, under which the Shakyamuni Buddha sat and attained Enlightenment. It is also the site of the Mahabodhi Mahavihara, a reconstruction of an ancient shrine built to commemorate the seat of Enlightenment.

Today the Mahabodhi Mahavihara and its surroundings are managed by the BodhGaya Temple Administration Committee – a not-for-profit organisation. In 2002, the Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya was officially inscribed as a UNESCO Planet Heritage Site. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1056/

The Mahabodhi Mahavihara is one of the oldest living shrines in the world. Its message and beauty have spread all over Earth. The current structure was reconstructed more than a hundred years ago monitoring excavations by British researchers and campaigns by Buddhists.

Located inside the Mahavihara is a small room with a golden statue of the Shakyamuni Buddha. Devotees will quietly queue up to craft their way inside the room to pay their respects, conduct their prostrations and reaffirm their vows before making their way

Made from yellow-gold copper alloy and reddish copper, this sculpture (Fig. 3a) depicts the historical Buddha Shakyamuni on the threshold of enlightenment, his right hand in the earth-touching gesture (bhumisparsha mudra), as he calls the earth to bear witness to his enlightenment. The earth-touching Buddha captures the moment in which he triumphed over his final obstacle to liberation and is an iconographic type that was known in India as the “Diamond Seat,” or vajrasana Buddha. 14 It pays homage not only to the fact of the Buddha's enlightenment, but also to Bodh Gaya, the site in northeastern India where his enlightenment is said to have transpired. Indian legends are packed of references to Bodh Gaya as the vajrasana, the diamond seat, the only place where all Buddhas, past, present, and future, did, do, and will attain enlightenment. The Asia Society's Life of Buddha plaque (Fig. 2) certainly also commemorates the Buddha's enlightenment at Bodh Gaya. However, there is considerable evidence to recommend that the metal statue illustrated in figure 3 has an even more particular association with the ancient pilgrimage site

The Life of Shakyamuni Buddha

A brief look at the background of who the Shakyamuni Buddha was, the major events of his life, and the unreal legacy that he left behind for the earth with the creation of Buddhism.

The birth of the Buddha

In 563 or 566 B.C.E., a prince was born to a noble family of the Shakya clan, in a very beautiful park called Lumbini Grove, which lay in the foothills of the Himalayas (in present-day southern Nepal). This beautiful park was not far from the capital city of the Shakya kingdom, Kapilavastu. The prince’s father, King Shuddhodana, named his son Siddhartha. He was a member of the Kshatriya, or royal warrior caste, and his clan lineage, the Gautamas, was ancient and pure. His mother was Mahamaya or Mayadevi, daughter of a forceful Shakya noble, Suprabuddha. Before the conception of Siddhartha, Queen Mahamaya dreamed that a white elephant, unusual and utterly beautiful, entered her body. Soon after the birth, soothsayers predicted that the young prince would become either a Chakravartin, a universal monarch, or an “awakened one,” a buddha. So from the very beginning of his birth, he showed signs of perfection.

The Three Great Statues inside the Golden Temple

1) Buddha Shakyamuni

The center statue is Buddha Shakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, who was born to King Shudodhana and Queen Mayadevi at Lumbini, 2561 years ago. Of the 1002 Buddhas who will come to this world during this Fortunate Aeon, he is considered the fourth. At the young age of 29, leaving the luxuries of the palace, Prince Siddhartha (his childhood name) set out to search for an everlasting answer to end the cycle of birth and death that has tormented all beings from occasion immemorial. After many years of serious practice, he attained enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree in Bodh Gaya and became a Buddha (One Who Knows Reality). For more than forty years, he turned the three amazing wheels of Dharma in command to deliver beings from the mire of suffering, and to help them reach their packed potential and attain supreme enlightenment. The variety of teachings that Lord Buddha gave to suit the different mentalities of beings can be simply condensed into the profound view of interdependence of all phenomena and the conduct of non-violence (ahims