Beginning on Christmas, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is scheduled to spend a month in the Buddhist holy city of Bodh Gaya in India in an effort to promote global peace.
The impending visit by the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism, a Nobel Peace Laureate and the world’s most esteemed Buddhist leader, is prompting pilgrims from across Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea, in a world torn by wars and conflicts, to travel to Bodh Gaya to hear him speak on the Buddha’s teachings.
Located in the largely rural northeastern Indian state of Bihar, Bodh Gaya contains the site where the Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment sometime between the mid-6th century and mid-4th century B.C. after meditating under a sacred tree known as the Bodhi Tree. A descendant of that Bodhi Tree stands next to the Mahabodhi Temple today. The temple is one of Buddhism’s holiest sites.
“In a world full of conflicts like the Ukraine War, the Dalai Lama will lead tens of thousands of Buddhists to pray for peace,” said Chalinda Bhikkhu, the temple’s chief monk, who expects thousands of pilgrims to attend the spiritual leader’s public prayers and sermons. “We hope our prayers will be answered and peace will return to not only the Ukraine-Russia front but also in other conflict zones of the world.”
Besides inspiring peace, the Dalai Lama’s visit is expected to boost local tourism, which has been adversely affected because of restrictions related to the 2020-21 COVID-19 pandemic. More than half a million tourists from India and abroad visited Bodh Gaya in 2019, but tourism traffic virtually came to a standstill during the pandemic, destroying the livelihoods of many local entrepreneurs.
Kinley Tshering, the owner of a restaurant that serves Bhutanese cuisine, remarked, “We nearly gave up our lease because there was no business for two years. But now foreign tourists from all over are coming in droves.”
About half a dozen overseas flights carrying pilgrims are landing every day at the Gaya International Airport, according to officials. The number of flights is expected to increase as the Dalai Lama’s visit nears.
However, the number of pilgrims from the neighboring Buddhist countries of Sri Lanka and Myanmar, and from China, which has millions of Buddhist devotees, are conspicuously low.
“Chinese pilgrims use to come in large numbers until the border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries impacted adversely on bilateral relations,” said Mrinal Chakma, a local travel agent, referring to skirmishes between New Delhi and Beijing over a long-standing border dispute in recent years.
“Perhaps travel bans due to Covid in China [are] also keeping them away,” he speculated. “Sri Lankans are perhaps not coming because of the economic collapse back home. Myanmar has both political disturbances and economic woes.”
Although many observers agree that the Dalai Lama’s imminent visit is a godsend for the Indian government’s efforts to engage with the Buddhist world while boosting local tourism diplomatically, much still needs to be done to introduce lasting change.
“Indian leaders do highlight that Buddha attained his Enlightenment in India,” Kailash Prasad, a professor of Buddhist Studies in Bodh Gaya told The New Indian Express, a prominent southern Indian newspaper. “But for Bodh Gaya to be elevated to something like an international holy town like Mecca or the Vatican, the Indian government and the Bihar government have to bring about a complete change in administrative attitudes.”
“Buddhist religious figures and experts on Buddhism,” Prasad added, “must have greater say in the running of sites like Bodh Gaya rather than small-time bureaucrats with limited understanding of Buddhism.”
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