Bodh+Gaya+Research

**Source 1:** "Maha Bodhi Temple, Bihar" __BuddhistTourism.com__ September 9th 2009. < http://www.buddhist-tourism.com/countries/india/temples-monuments/maha-bodhi-temple-bihar.html >

 * How this site was locate:** I located this site starting from Google.com and went on advanced search and searched "Bodh Gaya". I picked a trustworthy website and article.
 * NOTES:**
 * One of the few brick structures to survive in the north eastern India
 * #3rd Century BC, the temple was build by the great Indian emperor Akosha.
 * The temple has a 52 meter dome which was renovated in the 19th Century CE.
 * It was renovated and built in the 19th Century CE, but it still has the same format.
 * The Thervadins have copied the original structure
 * There is a walkway where the Buddha walked and meditated. It is located along the northern wall of the temple.


 * Source 2**: "Bodh Gaya."Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. Karen Christensen and David Levinson, eds. 6 vols. Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. < http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/HistRC?locID=sain62671 ]http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/HistRC/ >

**How This site was located:** I located this site starting from the MICDS database on http://www.micdslibrary.com/databases.html. I searched in the Gale US History tab under History/Social Studies. There, I advanced searched "Bodh Gaya" as a keyword. I chose the only article on the topic.
 * NOTES**
 * (2001 est. pop. 31,000)
 * In Bodh Gaya, a small town in central Bihar state, northeastern India, west of the Phalgu River
 * Is one of the holiest Buddhist sites.
 * Under the //bodhi (bo)// tree, Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment. Therefore became the Buddha.
 * A sapling from the original tree was carried to Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka; this tree grew there, and a cutting from it was returned to Bodh Gaya when the original tree died.
 * Near the descendent tree is the Mahabodhi Temple, a place of visiting for all Buddhists.
 * Site is also sacred to Hindus, Buddha = incarnation of Vishnu.
 * It is on the site of a temple erected by Asoka in the third century BCE; the current temple, restored in the 11th century and in 1882, houses a large gilded image of Buddha.
 * Bodh Gaya also includes the Shankaracharya Math (a Hindu temple), a Japanese temple, and Burmese, Chinese, Sri Lankan, Bhutanese, Vietnamese, Nepalese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Bangladeshi monasteries. A twenty-five-meter Great Buddha statue in the Japanese Kamakura style was unveiled by the Dalai Lama in 1989. Various monasteries and institutes offer Hinayana and Mahayana meditation courses and retreats.

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 * In the centuries following the Buddha's death, his teachings spread across the world.
 * Over time, the Buddha's dharma,inner-self, evolved so that a Buddhist in Japan and a follower in Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Tibet, or Los Angeles may have different thoughts upon the subject.
 * Nonetheless, all Buddhists try to achieve nirvana, just as Gautama did beneath the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, in northeastern India, thousands of years ago.
 * About eight centuries ago, Buddhism disappeared from India.
 * Still thrived throughout the rest of Asia.
 * Temples and stupas were built to commemorate the moment of enlightenment, though the sites were buried under windblown sands. The Bodhi tree died away.
 * In the nineteenth century, the British rulers of India began to restore the temple complex.
 * They cleared away the sand and planted a cutting of a descendant of the bodhi tree that had been nurtured for millennia in Sri Lanka, far to the south.
 * After attaining enlightenment, Buddha spent seven weeks meditating in Bodh Gaya.
 * Around 250 B.C. the Emperor Ashoka, who ruled much of India, built a grand complex at Bodh Gaya. It was rebuilt in the second century A.D. and later repaired in the eleventh century by Burmese Buddhists. Because of this, the central Mahabodhi temple resembles a Burmese-style stupa, which takes the form of a narrow pyramid.


 * Source for Picture 1**: "Lord Buddha in Bodh Gaya Temple". May 13 2009. WordPress.com. September 9th 2009. < http://nirmalranjan.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/gautam-became-the-buddha-here/ >


 * Source for Picture 2**: "Bodh Gaya" Mahabodhi.com September 9th 2009. < http://www.mahabodhi.com/Kalachakra-02/map-bodhgaya.htm >