Bodh Gaya's Mahabodhi temple, one of Buddhism's holiest shrines, plans to provide a peaceful environment for meditation to 4,000 visiting troops of the Royal British Army, who will start arriving in the second week of January 2013.
A month after serial bomb explosions at Bodh Gaya's Mahabodhi temple in Bihar, the temple management body has appealed to foreign monasteries to help woo pilgrims and tourists.
A year after the holy Buddhist city of Bodh Gaya in Bihar was rocked by serial bomb blasts, the city is gearing up for the three-day International Buddhist Conclave in which 300 scholars, historians and Buddhists from across the world will participate. The conclave will be held in September, officials said on Saturday.
National Investigation Agency sleuths, who are probing the serial blasts at Bodh Gaya, have failed to get any helpful leads from the footage recorded by the CCTV cameras at the spot.
Arvind Singh, a member of Mahabodhi temple management committee, said the two injured included a national of Myanmar and another of Tibet. They have been admitted to the Magadh MedicalCollege and Hospital, he said
Asserting that there should be no politics on the Bodh Gaya blasts, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said Sunday's terror strike is a lesson for everybody, and urged the Centre to take firm steps to intensify the security of the Mahabodhi temple, which is a symbol of faith for crores of followers of Buddhism all over the world.
Buddhists and Hindus have joined hands demanding that Bihar's twin towns of Gaya and Bodh Gaya be declared vegetarian and a dry area.
The National Investigation Agency has released two local men for want of evidence in the serial bomb blasts at Bodh Gaya temple on Sunday.
Delay in formation of a new panel of the Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee's by the state government led by Nitish Kumar raised eyebrows among Buddhist monks, who have been fighting for Buddhist control over the management of the temple at Bodh Gaya , about 110 km from Patna, where Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment 2,550 years ago. In the absence of a proper panel to look after its management, the temple has been facing difficulties in coping with day today affairs.
The ongoing National Investigation Agency investigation in the serial bomb blasts at Bodh Gaya's Mahabodhi temple has revealed that there was virtually no security during the night in the temple premises.
'The Mahabodhi temple is the only example in the world where a religion's most sacred place is controlled by people belonging to another religion.'
A year after serial bomb blasts hit the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, Bihar still awaits a security beef up. Central Industrial Security Force personnel are yet to be deployed at the shire, a police official said.
The National Investigation Agency, that is probing the serial blasts at Bodh Gaya's Mahabodhi temple in Bihar, announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for anybody providing information about suspects in the case, on Wednesday.
Bodh Gaya Mahabodhi Vihar All India Action Committee will launch a nationwide fresh agitation for control of the management of the 1,500-year-old Mahabodhi temple in Bihar's Bodh Gaya town.
The much awaited work to inlay with gold the dome of Bodh Gaya's 1,500-years-old Mahabodhi temple began on Wednesday by a team of technical experts from Thailand.
Chief priest of Mahabodhi Temple of Bodh Gaya Bhadant Bhodipal has resigned, fearing prosecution on criminal charges in a case related to the illegal felling of a branch of the sacred Bodhi tree.
The Bihar police have said they have the entire footage and this could help investigators crack the case.
Buddhist monks have demanded the arrest of chief priest of Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya, Bhante Bodhi Pal, ex-officio secretary of Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee (BMTC) Kalicharan Yadav and public relations officer Bhajju Yadav for chopping off a branch of the Bodhi tree.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Monday criticised the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar for keeping the security of Mahabodhi Temple in private hands despite intelligence warnings about terror attacks.
"The serial blasts deserve the strongest condemnation in the strongest possible words as the perpetrators targeted the place of religious faith of crores of people with an aim to create fear among them," the Bihar chief minister told reporters after inspecting the blast sites at the Mahabodhi temple and surrounding areas in Gaya district with senior civil and police officials
The Supreme Court on Friday sought response of the Centre and the Bihar government to decide whether a Hindu can be the chairman of the famed Maha Bodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya and the managing committee dominated by Hindus instead of Buddhists.
Even though the NIA claims that more than 90 per cent of cases charge-sheeted have ended in conviction, the figure is likely misleading. To date, very few cases investigated by the NIA have resulted in a completed trial, points out former CBI joint director Navneet Rajan Wasan.
For India to endorse Nepal's Buddhist conference will be like sipping from a poisoned chalice, warns former RA&W official Jayadeva Ranade.
Indians want change and progress. They should be willing to accept tough decisions, says Sanjeev Nayyar.