living religious and World Heritage site / Bihar

Mahabodhi Temple Complex

Branches frame the temple tower in this 2016 photograph. Mahabodhi is a World Heritage site, but it is also a place people continue to visit for worship. Its age and its present use belong in the same account.

Mahabodhi Temple tower framed by tree branches at Bodh Gaya. — 2016 · PhotographShubhrojit Misra · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized; soft edge treatment in the page. Original image and marks retained.

In the record

The Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2002.

UNESCO dates the present temple to the fifth or sixth century and describes it as one of India's early surviving brick Buddhist temples.

The site is associated with the Buddha's enlightenment and remains a place of pilgrimage.

Return to Gaya in the archive