In the Pragbodhi Hills northeast of Bodhgaya is the tiny cave where Buddha is said to have spent seven years living as an ascetic, almost dying from starvation in the process. A visit is absolutely fascinating in a Monty Python kind of way, hoards of salesmen and beggars doing everything in their power to ensure that the experience is anything other than serene. Although it's less than 10 minutes' walk up a wide concrete pathway from the car park area, touts insist you'll need a walking cane (lent for a fee) while some pilgrims get carried up in a saliyang, like a single-poled Sedan Chair. The 8km journey from Bodghaya is fascinating too. The journey starts across a causeway bridge to a river island (Sujata) where from dawn to 9am, passage is half blocked by a vegetable market. Once across to the river's east bank you're suddenly among palm trees and paddy fields with tractors outnumbering tourist cars and villages of heart-rending poverty where buffalo droppings are mixed with straw and dried on trees and walls for fuel. It's worth a quick stop at an impressively huge banyan tree. According to a few sources (much disputed), this is Ajapala Nigrodha, the banyan tree beneath which the Buddha sat after enlightenment, giving refusing to be tempted by the demon Mara and later offering insights to followers.
The 8km journey from Bodghaya is fascinating too. The journey starts across a causeway bridge to a river island (Sujata) where from dawn to 9am, passage is half blocked by a vegetable market. Once across to the river's east bank you're suddenly among palm trees and paddy fields with tractors outnumbering tourist cars and villages of heart-rending poverty where buffalo droppings are mixed with straw and dried on trees and walls for fuel. It's worth a quick stop at an impressively huge banyan tree. According to a few sources (much disputed), this is Ajapala Nigrodha, the banyan tree beneath which the Buddha sat after enlightenment, giving refusing to be tempted by the demon Mara and later offering insights to followers.
