Gaya, Feb. 5: The renaming of the annual Bauddha Mahotsav in Bodhgaya as Bodh Mahotsav has left many Buddhist monks and devotees fuming.

“The organisers of the festival had several options to rename the festival. They could have called it Buddha Mahotsav, Bodhi Mahotsav or Buddhist festival. The word Bodh has no meaning either in Buddhist or Pali literature,” monk in-charge of Chakma Buddhist Monastery and International Buddhist Council member Bhikkhu Priyapala told The Telegraph.

“Enlightenment means Bodhi in Buddhist literature. If there was any need to rename the festival after the venue, the organisers could have named it Bodhgaya Mahotsav,” he added.

On the other hand, district land acquisition officer Prabhat Kumar Jha said 2011-12 is the 2,600th year since Prince Siddhartha attained enlightenment. “We decided to rename Bauddha Mahotsav as Bodh Mahotsav because Bodh means enlightenment. Another factor is that the new name, Bodh Mahotsav, will specify that the festival is held in Bodhgaya,” added Jha,who is also in charge of the public relations of the district.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar inaugurated the event at Kalchakra Ground towards the north-west of Mahabodhi Mahavihara on February 3.

With an aim to promote tourism and woo foreign tourists, Bauddha Mahotsav was first held in 1998 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister.

Over 10,000 people, including international tourists and Buddhist devotees, attended the cultural programme on the inaugural day of this year’s festival. Artistes from the Thailand cultural ministry, Royal Academy of Performing Arts, Bhutan, Dhan Dham Nana Pububa Foundation of Sri Lanka, the cultural department of Sikkim, Sindhu Sargam Society of Ladakh and Bihar Gaurav Gatha performed on the first two days of the three-day festival.

Today’s attractions were folk dances from Maharashtra, Assam, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Manipur, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.