Another Buddhist pilgrimage is Bodh Gaya, a place where Siddharta Gautama attained a supreme enlightenment.

After six years forcing himself in practicing austerities, he realized that extreme mortification does not lead to liberation. He left the place as well as five other ascetic followers. In Bodh Gaya, under a Bodhi tree, he sat and started deep meditation. He made a vow not to stand up from that place until enlightenment was attained.

"Here on this seat my body may shrivel up,
my skin, my bones, my flesh may dissolve,
but my body will not move from this seat
until I have attained Enlightenment,
so difficult to obtain in the course of many kalpas".

Ashoka visited the site and is considered the founder of the Mahabodhi Temple. According to the tradition, Ashoka, as well as establishing a monastery, erected a diamond throne shrine at this spot with a canopy supported by four pillars over a stone representation of the Vajrasana, the Seat of Enlightenment.

The temple has a superb architecture. However, the main intention of building the temple is not as a reservation of relics rather merely as a monument. Several shrines were constructed with enshrined images for use as places of worship.

Mahabodhi Shrine in Bodhgaya is believed by many to mark the spot where the Buddha sat under the tree, but others say that the tree of Great Meditation is outside the city.
The basement of the present temple is 15m square, 15m in length as well as in breadth and its height is 52m which rises in the form of a slender pyramid tapering off from a square platform. On its four corners four towers gracefully rise to some height. The whole architectural plan gives pose and balance to the observers.

Inside the temple there is a colossal image of the Buddha in the "touching the ground pose", bhumisparsha mudra. This image is said to be 1700 years old and is facing east exactly at the place where the Buddha in meditation with his back to the Bodhi tree was enlightened.

For seven days after the Enlightenment, the Buddha continued to meditate under the Bodhi tree without moving from his seat. During the second week he practiced walking meditation. A jewel walk, Chankramanar, was built as a low platform adorned with nineteen lotuses which are parallel to the Maha Bodhi temple on its north side. For another week the Buddha contemplated the Bodhi tree. In this place a stupa was built called Animeschalochana situated to the north of the Chankramanar.

Around the Bodhi tree and the Mahabodhi temple there are quadrangular stone railings around 0.2m high with four bars including the top piece. These are of two types and can be distinguished from each other in style and material used. The older set is dated to about 150 BC and made of sandstone while the latter set is probably of the Gupta period (300-600 AD) and constructed from course granite. The older set has a number of designs representing scenes from the purchase of Jetavana by Ananthapindika at Sravasti, Lakshmi being bathed by elephants, Surya riding a chariot drawn by four horses, etc. On the latter set there are figures of stupas, Garudas, etc. In most of these railings lotus motifs are commonly used.