Children enjoy themselves near the Kalchakra Ground and (above) a devotee listens to the preachings of the Dalai Lama on the fifth day of Kalchakra Puja in Bodhgaya on Thursday. Pictures by Suman

Bodhgaya, Jan. 5: Cooking meal on riverbanks with family members is a common practice when people go out for picnics. The holy city of Bodhgaya is witnessing several such picnics ever since the Kalchakra Puja began.

Hundreds of devotees, along with their families, are staying in tents erected along the banks of Falgu river. They can be seen cooking meals on the riverbanks.

“It is like an extended picnic for us as we rarely get the opportunity to spend so many days on a riverbank with family and that too in a tent. It is simply fun to cook meals for your family members after completing the puja,” said Tenzin Funso, a Buddhist from Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh.

This happy Buddhist was, however, a bit worried on the first day of his stay in a tent on the river bank, as it was raining. He had serious problems staying inside the tent as it was leaking.

“Fortunately the rainy spell was of short duration. Now that the days are sunny, it has become fun,” he said.

While the families are enjoying cooking meals jointly in the leisure time they get once the daily chore of puja is over in the afternoon, the young ones, particularly those in their teens and 20s, congregate at temporary food stalls that have come up on Bodhgaya streets.

While majority of the eateries have been set up by residents of the area, some from outside have also set up their stalls catering to the diverse food needs of devotees.

“It is more like a global village where one has to cater to the tastes of people from different regions. Our stall provides an option for those coming from the Ladakh region,” said a stall owner who has come from Ladakh.

Of 1.5 lakh and odd devotees having congregated at Bodhgaya, around a third are the young ones who love to visit these eateries after spending time listening to the discourses of the Dalai Lama.

Eating apart, the visitors are using their leisure time in sightseeing. A couple, Karma Dorjee and his wife Soma from Himachal Pradesh, were spotted near the world heritage Mahabodhi Mahavihara.

“We are visiting this place for the first time. After listening to the discourse of the Dalai Lama, we are leaving no opportunity to see the monasteries of different Buddhist countries here,” Dorjee said, adding that he also wished to visit Nalanda and Rajgir but could not because of time constraint.

There are several others like the Dorjees. They also visit several places after the discourse of the Dalai Lama is over. They hop from one monastery to another, clicking pictures. A few even draw sketches of the places they visit.

When tired, they can be seen having snacks at roadside stalls. A few befriend people of the area to learn more about the town.

With a large number of young devotees having turned up in the city, some innovative ones have chosen to spread awareness on AIDS as well.

A Dharamshala-based voluntary organisation, Choice, has set up a camp near the office of Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee for this purpose. Its volunteers are distributing leaflets among those visiting the camp.

“The response so far has been tremendous and on an average, our stall is visited by around 2,000 devotees daily,” said Sonam Dorjee, one of the volunteers manning the stall of Choice.