Monday, September 23, 2013

Day 10 – 18/11/2012 Sunday – Bodhgaya

Sujata Stupa

 Phalgu River

Although our wakeup call was at 5:00am, I woke up at 4:00am. The day began as Thay TC took the group to a local garden. We then went to visit Sujata stupa and a school close to the stupa. MK told Thay TC about the this fraud school and to be careful about how the local people have created this place to con many tourists, but Thay TC didn’t listen. He went with them and asked the group to donate. We walked on the Phalgu River to follow the footsteps  of the Buddha who had walked 2500 more years ago. We then visited Vietnamese temple, Chinese temple, Thai temple, Tibetan temple, Japanese temple to visit the big Buddha, Bhutan temple then we went back for lunch at our hotel. After lunch we had some rest then we went to a school (Surya Bharti School) which was administrated by a Japanese lady. We did our usual stuff – donate money. Fong and I donated a fair bit of money and Someone was not happy about this. He said we should only donate wholeheartedly when it’s a Buddhist school, not a school that teaches Hindu children. He said Hindu destroyed Buddhism which is the reason why we should not support it. I told Thay TH and Hue Dung that I donated because I believe education is essential to Indian children. This school teaches science, maths and their local language. I don’t care if it’s a Buddhist school or not. The only thing that matters this school helps the local children to come out from poverty. Hue Dung totally agreed with me. He also supported this school. If I discriminate what I donate then I have lost my purpose. MK took us to two shops. The first store belonged to the Japanese lady who everyone bought an India dress from her – 500 rupees. Second shop was selling sandal wood and other gem stone malas. Fong and I bought a long sandalwood mala so we could break it into four wrist malas. After some expensive shopping, we went back to our hotel and did further street shopping with Thay TH. 

Surya Bharti School

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