[Buddha-l] Bodhgaya today

[jkirk]

http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501050718-1081432,00.html
The Buddhist heartland in eastern India has fared worst of all. The original 
fig tree at Bodhgaya-under which Prince Siddhartha became the enlightened 
Buddha-burned down centuries ago. Today, hawkers sell leaves from a 
replacement tree for $1 apiece. A swath of hotels and shops encroach on the 
temple complex, and police say looters have stolen hundreds of artifacts, an 
allegation that temple manager Kallicharan Yadav dismisses as "baseless." 
What is undeniable is that Hindu priests have turned parts of the Buddhist 
holy site into shrines to their own gods. A day's drive away, Nalanda 
University, the wellspring from which ideas of Nirvana and reincarnation 
washed across the world from the 5th to 12th centuries, is nowadays a 
forgotten pile of bricks and weeds. Faced with this overwhelming array of 
neglected treasures, Thakur concedes: "Sometimes it's all so depressing, I 
don't even want to think about it."

More--this article is about how too many of India's heritage monuments are 
being repalced by commercial squatters, looted, plastered over, or torn down 
for bricks (as of old, one might add). Good article for art lovers.
Joanna