By Mohammad Sartaj Alam and Yashraj Sharma
Bodh Gaya, India — As he stood in a queue outside a makeshift tent kitchen for breakfast, 30-year-old Abhishek Bauddh could not help but reflect on the throngs of people around him in Bodh Gaya, Buddhism’s holiest site.Bauddh has been visiting the town in eastern India’s Bihar state, where the Buddha gained enlightenment, since he was 15. “But I have never seen such an atmosphere. Buddhists from all over the country are gathering here,” he said.
For once, they are not in Bodh Gaya only for a pilgrimage. They are part of a protest by Buddhists that has erupted across India in recent weeks over a demand that control of Bodh Gaya’s Mahabodhi Temple, one of the faith’s most sacred shrines, be handed over exclusively to the community.
