Bodhgaya, March 12: Their eyes moist and anxiety showing on their faces, the Japanese settlers at the Buddha’s land of enlightenment are offering a prayer for their friends and families back home.

The ferocious tsunami triggered by the massive earthquake that struck Japan yesterday has cast a shadow on this south Bihar religious township, which is like a second home to several people from Japan. Bodhgaya, about 90km south of Patna, has two Japanese monasteries and is visited by over 1,000 people from the country almost every year during the religious season: November to February.

The anxious residents here are busy getting in touch with their friends and relatives through emails and any other available means of communication.

“Please pray for us at the holy land of Lord Buddha for peace to the departed souls and safety to survivors,” reads an email sent by Shizuka Hitomi Fukushima in Japan to her friend, Kazuhino Fujita, senior manager of the Asia zone unit of Happy Science, a religious and charitable body based in Japan.

Fujita heaved a sigh of relief to learn that his Kyoto-based father had not been affected by the tsunami and was safe. But Fujita is anxious about his other relatives and friends, particularly those living in Sendai and other parts of northern Japan which bore the brunt of the tsunami. “I have no immediate plans to go to my homeland. But I am praying for their safety and enquiring about them,” Fujita told The Telegraph.

Fujita is devastated by the magnitude of the destruction. “I have never seen or heard of such destruction in my country. I have come to know that even in Tokyo several of my friends could not go home due to disruption of road, rail and air traffic and they are living in misery with electricity snapped,” he said.

The Japanese monks organised a special prayer session at the Mahabodhi temple for the well being of the quake survivors. Over 50 monks, including three senior ones from Indosan Nipponji and Daijokyo monasteries, participated in the hour-long prayer.

The monks requested they be left alone. “It is time to pray to Lord Buddha. We have nothing to say. We just wish to pray,” said a monk. The prayer was organised under the aegis of the Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee.

While Fujita was relieved to learn about his father’s well being, the in-charge of the Bihar branch of Happy Science, Yuki Inoue, was still tense as she was yet to get a reply to her emails sent to her brother and his family settled at Yamagata, a place close to Sendai. She was also anxious about a friend living at Nigata who had so far not replied to her email.

Yuki was away in New Delhi and talked to The Telegraph over phone. She is married to a Bodhgaya resident, Sudama Kumar, and the couple own a hotel at the world heritage site.

Like Yuki, over 20 girls from Japan have married Bodhgaya residents. Sudama said several people like him have relatives in Japan. “Over 200 of our relatives from Japan, including people living in Sendai and other affected areas, visit the land of the Buddha every year between November and February,” Sudama said.

While Yuki looks after her work with Happy Science and runs the hotel with Sudama, several other girls who are married to Bodhgaya grooms play host to the visitors from Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya and other parts of Japan and also work as their guides.

A resident of Denmark, Jan Holm, a practitioner of the Buddhist way of living, was also worried about his friends in Japan. Holm, who has been staying at an ashram in Bodhgaya, said: “I have lived in Japan for six years and have many friends there. I am worried about them,” he said.