Devotees buy bread from a makeshift stall at the Kalchakra Ground in Bodhgaya on Sunday. Picture by Suman

The restaurant owners, who generally stay in Bodhgaya from November to February (the tourist season), offer all types of cuisines — Tibetan, American, Chinese, Japanese, Israeli, Russian apart from the good old north and south Indian delicacies. The 10-day Kalchakra Puja, which started in Bodhgaya today after eight years, has attracted more temporary kiosks. Last year, 40 makeshift restaurants had come up near the ground. This year, the number has gone up to 100.

The dim-lit restaurants, which look like small huts, are nicely decorated inside. Popular music playing in the background makes the atmosphere more pleasing for the diners. They are, after all, enticed with delicious chowmein, momos, chopsueys and tofu. Porridge, pancakes, spinach and mushroom quesadilla (a flour or corn tortilla filled with a savoury mixture), soups, noodles, snacks, chilly curries, juice and lassi complete the platter for the hungry tourists and devotees at the restaurants.

Around 1.5 lakh devotees from the northeastern states, Tibet and Buddhist countries across the world have arrived at the Kalchakra Ground to hear the discourses of the spiritual leader of Buddhists, the Dalai Lama. People from Europe, the USA and South Asia are also attending the 10-day puja. One of the dishes most popular with the tourists is the steaming thenthuk, a type of Tibetan noodle soup.

Md Nayeem from Miyanbigha in Bodhgaya, who has opened a makeshift restaurant for the first time, is offering thenthuk to the diners and is happy with the rush.

Nayeem’s brother is an old hand at these restaurants. “Md Mumtaz has been running a makeshift restaurant in the tourist season in Bodhgaya for the past five years,” said Nayeem.

Nayeem’s partner in the business, Jonathan, is a 34-year-old Buddhist mediator from England. He told The Telegraph: “Thirty-seven employees are working at our makeshift restaurant, of which at least six are cooks specialised in Chinese, Tibetan and other dishes.”

Many of these cooks and other helpers at the makeshift eateries would head off to Ladakh in the off-season.

Nangcheen, owner of another makeshift Tibetan restaurant, said: “Tourists enjoy our food and we get no complaints. We deliver what is asked for, hot and fresh. Trained chefs prepare most of our food and the price of the dishes is also less compared to the hotels in and around Bodhgaya. The rates of our dishes vary between Rs 20 and Rs 100.”