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Gaya Tourism

Gaya’s tourism is all about exploring Buddhism. Since this is the place where Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment. During his decade long spiritual quest Buddha went to many temples and places of Gaya where he practiced meditation and subsequently Buddhism as a religion was evolved. Today these temples and places have been immortalized as sacred destinations for Buddhist pilgrimages across the world. The city remind on the wishlist of tourists visiting Bihar.

Best time to visit Gaya

Famous place to visit in Gaya

The best time to visit Gaya is surely winter season – November to February. This is also the best time to visit holy city of Bodh Gaya, which is obviously the main tourist attraction of Gaya district. Winter season is usually when Tibetan Pilgrimages including Holy Dalai Lama pay visit to holy city of Bodh Gaya.

Important Tourism Helpline Numbers

Before briefing you about important tourist destinations in Gaya, here are some of the important tourism helpline no's.
Tour and Travel in GayaBihar State Tourism Development Corporation
(A Govt.of Bihar Undertaking)
Bir Chand Patel Path, Patna.
PIN-800 001, Bihar, India.
Phone: +91-612-2225411,
Fax: +91-612-2506218.
Email: bihartourism.bstdc@gmail.com
Web Site: https://bstdc.bih.nic.in/

Sr.SP Gaya
Phone: 0631-2225901 (O)
0631-2225902 (R)
Mob: 9431822973
Email: sp-gaya-bih@nic.in
City SP Gaya
Phone: 0631-2224572 (O)
0631-2225855 (R)
Mob: 9473191722
Email: citysp-gaya-bih@nic.in

Bodh Gaya Police Station
631 - 2200741,9431822208

Town Police Station
631 2420082,9431822198

Famous places to visit in Gaya

Thai Monastery

Best tourist spot in Gaya

This is a beautiful Buddhist monastery that is constructed in pure Thai architecture. Hence the name ‘Thai Monastery’. The monastery is indeed immensely beautiful and offers lot of spiritual solace. There is a splendid Buddha Idol inside the monastery, which is unarguably the main attraction. Also, there are many beautiful mural and wall paintings depicting Buddha’s life. But more than anything else, its deeply imbedded spiritual peace and solace that is the actual essence of this place. Visit this place if you’re heart is craving for peace and inner happiness.

Mahabodhi Temple Complex

Mahabodhi temple complex most sacred Buddhist destination in entire world, let alone just Bihar or India. Since this temple complex is home to the holy Bodhi tree under which Siddhartha achieved enlightenment and eventually became Buddha. In other words, this place is exactly where Buddhism was born. And not surprisingly, every year millions of Buddhist pilgrims from across the world pay visit to this place. Besides, temple is an architectural marvel itself. In fact purely on the basis of architecture this temple can easily make into the list of beautiful temples of India. This is not it, construction of this temple was ordered by Maurya King Ashoka.

Dungeshwari Temple

This small cave temple is yet another sacred place for Buddhist pilgrims. Gautama Buddha is believed to have meditated here for 6 long years before heading to Bodh Gaya for final realization . Two beautiful idols of Buddha have been erected here to mark his spiritual quest and practices here. Besides, idol of Hindu god Dungeshwari has also been erected here. The temple derives its name from this Hindu god, which is self explanatory from name itself.

Vishnupad Temple

This is another temple where Gautama Buddha is believed to have meditated for many years and hence is visited by Buddhist devotees from across the world. And here too beautiful statutes of Gautama Buddha have been erected to commemorate his spiritual practices and penance. Besides, temple is itself pretty huge and is tucked in the midst of hill rocks. In other words, location and overall architecture is also another highlight of this sacred temple.

Sujata Garh

This place is home to very ancient and beautiful stupa. This was the last place that Buddha visited before heading to Bodhi tree where he eventually achieved enlightenment. And secondly, at this very place Buddha is believed to have understood the importance of middle path and that severe deprivation and penance won’t help him in his spiritual quest. A beautiful stupa was erected during ancient times to commemrate Buddha’s eventful life here. The stupa has surely stood the test of time for centuries and today stands as one of the sacred destinations for Buddhist tourists.

Japanese temple

This is a very beautiful monastery constructed in pure Japanese style architecture. It is defiantly more beautiful and lavish than Thai Monastery. Interiors of this monastery are especially lavish and really worth experiencing. However, main purpose of this monastery is obviously to bring peace and harmony into the lives of its visitors and it very well succeeds in doing so. Interior and outer surrounding of this temple in fact exudes with immense peace and spiritual vibration. This beautiful monastery is located just few kilometers away from Mahabodhi Temple.

Other famous destinations near Gaya

All of these Buddhist destinations are equally worth visiting and some are in fact immensely popular amongst tourists. Muchalind Tank located to the south of the Mahabodhi temple, Temple of Burma (officially oldest monastery of India) and Tibet Temple (another famous monastery of Bodha Gaya).

How to Reach Gaya ?

Gaya is well connected to rest of India via rail and air. Although Gaya is better connected via rail than air. In fact Gaya railway station happens to be one of the most important railway junctions of Bihar and hence connects Gaya to almost all the important cities of India.

Connectivity in Gaya

Here are the names of all the cities that Gaya is directly connected via railway: Ranchi, Bokaro, Kolkata, Guwahati, Delhi, Chennai, Mathura, Parasnath(Shikharji), Varanasi, Lucknow, Kota, Kanpur, Allahabad, Agra, Bareilly, Dehradun, Jabalpur, Bhopal, Indore, Nagpur, Mumbai, Pune, Puri, Ahmedabad, Jodhpur, Amritsar, Kalka, Jammu, Gwalior, Dehradun, Jamshedpur(Tatanagar) and Bhuvaneshwar. As for connectivity via air is concerned, then Gaya does have an airport – simply known as Gaya airport. Although it is an international airport, it is only connected to few Buddhist countries like Sri Lanka and Thailand. Domestically though it is connected to many important Indian cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Varanasi and Mumbai.

Where to Stay in Gaya ?

Here are names of some of the best known hotels of Gaya. These hotels are known for their luxury, comfort and most importantly for hospitality services. Whenever travelling to this city you can opt to stay in these hotels of Gaya.

Hotel Viraat Inn
Address: 194,Lakshman Sahay Lane,
Opposite Gaya Railway Station, Gaya - 823001 (BIHAR)
Mobile no: +917541057106 , +917541057107
Mobile no: +91 9234455311 , +91 9234455312
Phone no: +91 631-2224889.

Hotel Gharana Gaya
Address: South Church Road ,Near Gandhi
Maidan , Gaya-823001 (Bihar)
hotelgharanagaya@gmail.com
Land Line : 0091-631-2225512
Mobile No : 0091-9430072305

Hotel Buddha Residency
Address: Sujata Bypass Road,
Near Tergar Monestary, Bodhgaya
Phone no: +91 8521757181.

The Royal Residency
Address: Domuhan Road, Bodh Gaya 824231,
India,
Phone no: not available.

Shopping in Gaya

Shopping in Gaya

All the popular shopping centers and market places are concentrated in main city which is administrative headquarter of Gaya district. Although there are no shopping malls or even upscale retail stores in Gaya city, still there are hordes of retail shops that sell almost every popular shopping item and there is equally no dearth of street markets in the city either.And in case if you’re interested in indulging in some Buddhist related shopping, then you can straight away head to Bodh Gaya. Here there are lots of local markets where you can buy products related to Buddhism religion – including of course beautiful statues of Gautama Buddha.

Entertainment and Nightlife in Gaya

Barring few cinema halls, beer bars and multi cuisine restaurants, Gaya hardly offers anything much on the front of entertainment and nightlife. And all of the entertainment and nightlife options are again mainly concentrated in the main city of Gaya. Below are the addresses of few well known cinema halls of Gaya city.

APR Movie Theatre
Address: S P Road, Gaya Ho, Gaya - 823001
Mobile no: +(91)-9431223023

Anand Cinema
Address: S P Road, Gaya Ho,
Gaya - 823001
Mobile no: +(91)-9431226026

Over all, Gaya’s tourism is completely steeped in Buddhist spiritualism.If your heart is craving for spiritual wisdom and solace then Gaya is one place in India that will offer it in abundance. Besides, immense rich history of this place brings forth different aura and charm that is visible in its culture even to this day. Gaya, in other words, is ultimate destination for historical and spiritual buffs.


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