Blogs from Bihar, India, Asia - page 3

Prior to leaving on this trip from Alaska, we had made a decision to attend the 32nd annual Kalachakra initiation presented by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. While we had no real idea what we were getting our selves into, we knew it would be a great opportunity/adventure. The Kalachakra initiation was to be presented in a town that could house maybe several thousand tourists at a time, and yet would be attended by appx two hundred thousand. Due to the lack of accommodations, many tent camps were being set up for the attendees. We opted to stay in a tent on the university grounds hosted by the Kalachakra organizing committee and blindly booked our tent many months in advance. So eventually the day arrived when we needed to catch a train from Varanasi to Gaya. ... read more

We finally made it to the Birgunj/Raxoul (Nepal/Indian) border crossing after about 10 long hours of riding in our taxi. Our driver had no idea what the protocol was when it came to exiting/entering countries. He drove us straight through the border and past both visa stations. Once we finally got him to understand what we needed to do,(ie. actually present our selves to the officials who handle Passport, Customs, Immigration control, both on the exiting of Nepal and the entering of India). It is never advisable to run a border between two countries the way our driver casually did. We had to turn around and attempt to cross the border back into Nepal unnoticed. This had us a little concerned, but we made it through with no problems. Once we got our passports properly stamped ... read more

Hiya folks! Sorry for the delay. Things have been kind of hectic with sightseeing, Vipassana courses, tabla lessons, and all. So I'm just now getting around to the first official travel blog post - yes, two months into the trip. In this post, I will cover my Vipassana course (February 16-27) in Bodh Gaya. There will then be a bit of backtracking as the next post will cover the month of January I spent in South India. I just wanted to talk about the Vipassana first.......while it's fresh in my mind (I wasn't allowed to write anything down during the retreat). And the post after that will likely explore Kolkata and the tabla. So here are some pics for you: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8870546@N03/sets/72157626179020876/ Also, y'all are gonna have to show me some love (or hate or something) if ... read more

die inder machen fotos von uns westler, wir kleiden uns wie die inder und die inder moechten so aussehen wie wir bodhgaya ist wunderschoen und ein toller ort zum praktizieren, verlaesst man aber den geschuetzten bereich so ist es ausser laut und aggressiv nur laut und... ich fang an, wuensche zu machen, nicht als inder wiedergeboren zu werden. apropos heut hab ich geburtstag... ... read more

Ok, ich hab Euch ja schon diverse Bilder von Buddha-Statuen und Tempeln zugemutet, aber Bodh Gaya und sein Mahabodhi-Tempel sind etwas besonderes. Bodh Gaya ist eine der heiligsten Stätten des Buddhismus. Der buddhistischen Lehre zufolge erlangte Siddharta Gautama an diesem Ort unter einem Bodhi-Baum meditierend die Erleuchtung und wurde somit zum Buddha. Ein Nachfahre des ursprünglichen Bodhibaumes (der erste wurde zerstört) steht hier noch heute. Um die Stelle herum wurde ein prachtvoller Tempel erbaut. Buddhistische Nationen und Gruppen aus allen Ecken Asiens haben in Bodh Gaya außerdem zahlreiche weitere Tempel in ihrem jeweiligen heimatlichen Stil erbaut und so findet man tibetische Tempel neben chinesischen, japanischen, thailändischen oder vietnamesischen Tempeln. Neben buddhistischen Pilgern zieht es auch zahlreiche Hindus in die Tempel. Für Hindus gilt Buddha als die neunte Ink... read more