Bombs and Buddha's Enlightenment

Mahabodhi Temple, built by Emperor Ashoka around 260 BCE . Image Source: Wiki.

From The Times of India, via Digital Tibetan Buddhist Altar: there has just been a serial bombing  of the Mahabodhi Temple in eastern India and a bombing at or near the Bodhi tree, a descendant of the sacred fig tree under which Buddha reached enlightenment:

The site of the Bodhi tree at Bodhigaya is directly connected to the life of Buddha (566-486 BCE) ... [he] attained enlightenment or perfect insight when he was meditating under this tree. ... According to the Jatakas, it forms the navel of the earth, and no other place can support the weight of the Buddha's attainment. ... Buddhist mythology also states that when the world is destroyed at the end of a kalpa, the Bodhimanda is the last spot to disappear and is the first to appear when the world emerges into existence again. The myth also claims that a lotus will bloom there, and if a Buddha is born during that the new kalpa, the lotus flowers in accordance with the number of Buddhas expected to arise.

Further reporting from the Telegraph: a bomb was placed at the foot of the temple's 80-foot-tall (24-metre) statue of the Buddha, but did not go off.

"An injured Buddhist monk receives medical treatment at a hospital in Gaya, on July 7, 2013." Image Source: AFP.

"A Buddhist monk is carried on a stretcher after the attacks in Bodh gaya." Image Source: Manish Bhandari/AP via Daily Telegraph.

"A policeman looks at debris at the Bodh Gaya Buddhist temple complex, on July 7, 2013."  Image Source: AFP.

"The entrance to a Buddhist temple edifice at the Bodh Gaya temple complex was torn apart by the explosions." Image Source: Sky News.

Broken windows at the Bodh Gaya temple complex. Image Source: Sky News.

Bomb disposal personnel recover an unexploded bomb at the foot of the great statue of Buddha. Image Source: Sky News.

The Mahabodhi Tree in Bodh Gaya. Image Source: Wiki.