Beside the Bodhi Tree: The Vajrasana and the Heart of Enlightenment
Housed in the Potala Palace, this 11th-century model of the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya stands 49 cm tall. It offers a more precise depiction of the architectural style prevalent at that time.
The Cleveland Museum of Art currently holds "Buddhist Seals: The Buddha's Enlightenment and Buddhist Verses," which were discovered at Bodh Gaya's Mahabodhi Temple in the mid-11th century. These artifacts employ the "Five Marks Conjoined" style that represents the Buddha's enlightenment—Temple, Sacred Tree, Throne, Buddha, and Verse. A separate item, "The Restored Mahabodhi Temple," is an 1899 excerpt from "The Queen's Empire: Illustrated Records" published by Cassell and Company, and attention should be paid to how early Buddhist seals differ from talismans in both origin and function.
དེ་ན་ངོ་མཚར་ཆེ་བ་དུ་མ་ཡོད་ལ། རྟེན་ཁྱད་དུ་འཕགས་པ་དུ་མ་བཞུགས་ཏེ། བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ཤིང་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཆེན་པོའི་སྐུ། ཆོས་རྒྱལ་མྱ་ངན་མེད་ཀྱིས་བཞེངས་པའི་གན་དྷོ་ལ། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཚེམས་ཆེ་བ་གཅིག། བོད་འཕྲུལ་སྣང་གི་ཐུབ་པའི་བཞུགས་ཁྲི། རྡོ་བ་ལ་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཀྱི་ཞབས་རྗེས་གཉིས། འཕགས་པ་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱིས་མཛད་པའི་རྡོའི་དྲ་མིག། ཏཱ་ར་བི་ཧཱ་ར་སྒྲོལ་མའི་ལྷ་ཁང་ངོ།
In Bodh Gaya's Mahabodhi Temple, numerous sacred relics and holy sites are found: the Bodhi tree, the Buddha statue within the temple's inner sanctum constructed by King Asoka, a larger relic of the Buddha's tooth, the original throne of the Jokhang Temple's Buddha statue in Tibet, the Buddha's footprint impressed on stone, a stone fence built under the wise scholar Nagarjuna's oversight, and the goddess Tara's temple named "Dolobihar." According to the "Biography of Translator Changyud," Changyud (1197–1264) remained at the Vajrasana holy site for over three months. *His account of the temple's inner chambers and the stone enclosure, however, is inaccurate.
The Mahabodhi Temple complex in Bodh Gaya, the site where the Buddha attained enlightenment, remains a significant destination for Buddhist pilgrims. Housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum is an 11th-century model of the complex, though the artifact's dating may actually be later. A photograph from 2007 by Janice Leoshko depicts "The Buddha Statue in the Central Inner Sanctuary of the Mahabodhi Temple.
Over time, the concept of building architectural models of Mahabodhi Temple has moved beyond merely replicating the sacred site's glory. Even today, such models remain numerous pilgrimage marks in major Tibetan monasteries, whether carried by ancient pilgrims or reproduced in various monasteries. They embody the spiritual power and symbolic significance of the temple, representing a familial lineage with it.
The life and teachings of the Buddha have been represented through architecture in various regions. These architectural models, preserved over time, gained significance during South Asia's colonial period and the subsequent struggles over temple control involving Buddhist revivalist groups and pan-Indian Hinduism. For archaeologists, they are now key research sources, while contemporary Buddhists regard them as sacred. The structures themselves capture pivotal moments, and the models serve to preserve and honor those events.
The three centuries from the 11th to the 13th centuries are widely regarded as the golden age of the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, and Tibetan scholars took advantage of this final era to visit. By the late 15th century, however, the sacred site had fallen from its former glory, with foreign armies and non-Buddhist religious sects contending for control.
Among the Tibetan scholars who made pilgrimages to the sacred site were Gampopa (1105-1198), the first Karmapa's guru; Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (11th century), the Sakya founder's teacher; and Lotsawa Marpa Lotsawa (1059-1109), the Kagyu school's translator. The translator Chakya Sherab Gyaltsen, for his part, left precious records about the Mahabodhi Temple.
Numerous architectural models of the site from that same era have also been discovered, leading to the construction of local temples that mirror the sacred site. Meanwhile, the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya was known to Tibetans as the Diamond Throne (Vajrasana), the holy place where the Buddha attained enlightenment, representing the supreme qualities of the protector of the Diamond Throne, the monastic and lay community, and the sacred teachings.
The image "Buddha Biography Image: Vajrasattva Buddha," created in the first half of the 14th century in the Nepalese style and currently housed in the Tibet Museum, depicts the Buddha who, after achieving enlightenment, came to be regarded as the "unequaled king of the world." A similar crown (དབུ་རྒྱན་) adorns the Buddha images at Lhasa's Jokhang and Ramoche Temples. In the Potala Palace, wall paintings from the 20th century depict the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, and the Thirteenth Dalai Lama authored a eulogy titled "Imitation of the architectural genealogy of the Mahabodhi Temple." A mid-19th century work by the author of "The Sacred Realm of the Mahabodhi Temple in Nepal" exists in a private collection, while the SRG Image Archives Center holds an image of the Mahabodhi Temple in Nepal, which was reconstructed following the major earthquake.
The photographer of "Beijing Zhenjue Temple (Five Pagoda Temple)" remains unnamed. Considerable debate surrounds the architectural models of the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya. According to some scholars, such models ought to be regarded as independent objects for study. Two major reasons account for this stance: first, most models in existence are not strictly representational; second, ancient classical craftsmen made elaborate adjustments to both their composition and fine details.
Viewing models as independent subjects of scholarly examination does not inherently clash with the understanding that they accurately mirror the architecture. For Buddhists, the Mahabodhi Temple complex—encompassing the Bodhi tree, the diamond throne where Buddha attained enlightenment, along with numerous monastic residences and temple ruins—constitutes a full pilgrimage destination. Thus, the layering of structures onto models merely serves to convey the entirety of this sacred site's holy concept.
Among the many extant architectural models, creative expressions that reach beyond form are common. To indicate the site's multiple remaining relics, scattered religious landmarks are gathered together in one place. To emphasize the tie between the sacred site and Buddha's life story, key moments from his life are depicted on the four gateways.
On the models, people carve five Buddhas and innate characters from many Buddhist stories, aiming to clarify the exoteric and esoteric nature of Buddha's teachings.
Anagarika Dharmapala (1864–1933), born in Sri Lanka and recognized as a modern Buddhist revivalist and the founder of the Maha Bodhi Society, once remarked: "The Mahabodhi Temple is the unique seal of the Buddha, the supreme altar city where the secret wisdom is preserved." For Buddhists across various regions, models of the Mahabodhi Temple—including replica temples—function as religious items meant to "recirculate the teachings of the Buddha and the spirit of offering." Likewise, for individuals who study or are deeply interested in Buddhism and Asian art, these models serve as outstanding representations of the link between "image and emotion," crafted through the fusion of sincere faith and remarkable creativity.
At the Rubin Museum, 'The Great Mahabodhi Temple Architectural Model of Bodh Gaya'—dating to the late 11th century—is a masterpiece of the Mahabodhi Temple architectural model, conceived through a secondary creation concept. The existing Bodhi tree atop the building, believed to be a direct descendant of the original, serves as the model's locale. Despite being thousands of miles away, these models always possess the power to transport people to that flower-strewn 'indestructible place.
Dating to the first half of the sixteenth century, this work, titled "The Buddha and Vajrasana Enlightenment Group Statue," comes from a private collection. Notice the Bodhi leaves and Nirvana figures at its top, which convey the sacred landscapes to the snowy land. This article was translated from Sorang Wangqing's blog.