Tibetan tourists walk past Indira Awas Yojana houses they have taken on rent in Bodhgaya, on Saturday. Picture by Suman

Bodhgaya, Dec. 31: Settlers in over 2,000 homes built under Indira Awas Yojana at Siddhartha Nagar in Bodhgaya are following Gautam Buddha’s message of abnegation in every practical sense.

They have left their homes, like Buddha, and are living in makeshift tents in order to accommodate the huge crowd of foreigners, which has converged here to participate in the 10-day-long Kalchakra Puja beginning tomorrow.

But the purpose of abnegation of Gautam Buddha and the below poverty line (BPL) families in Bodhgaya is quite contrasting.

While Siddhartha Gautam had relinquished worldly pleasures to gain enlightenment, the people here have left their homes to make some easy money in the tourist season.

“We get Rs 3,000 to Rs 12,000 for renting out our houses to the foreigners,” said Bijli Majhi, a father of five children. Bijli is living with his family in a polythene tent that he has built outside his home.

The landholders, too, are not far behind in renting out their property to tourists who generally throng the city in December-January, the time when major Buddhists congregations are organised in and around the Mahabodhi temple.

The landholders, particularly along the banks of river Niranjana, have divided their land into 500 to 700sqft plots, allotting them to Britons, French, Americans, Germans, Tibetans, Cambodians, Sri Lankans and Japanese tourists to set up their camps.

“They (landowners) are charging Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 per plot from the visiting tenants,” said Tashi (20), a youth from Cambodia living in a tent with his family.

Sources in the office set up by the Tibetan government-in-exile revealed that over 1.5 lakh people have gathered here from at least 40 countries. Though Bodhgaya has around 100 big and small hotels, they are unable to accommodate the tourists.

Nicolini Denise (40), a philanthropist living in a camp on a landholder’s plot, jumped to the defence of her “landlords” when asked if she was aware that the Indira Awas houses were built by the government for poor people. “They (settlers) are smart people. There is nothing wrong if they are giving us their houses or plots and earning some money. You should not condemn them. After all, they are poor,” she said.

Kishori Majhi who, too, has given his two-room house to a family from Sri Lanka said: “It is the time we earn for the whole of the month by giving our houses to the visitors.” However, Kishori had a complaint from the government. “The government has built a very small house for us. Had it given us a little bigger house with good toilets and bathrooms, we would have earned more,” Kishori said.

There was an almost stampede-like situation when the Dalai Lama arrived at the Mahabodhi shrine today. The Tibetan spiritual leader is scheduled to begin the 10-day Kalchakra Puja at the Kalchakra Maidan here from tomorrow.

Hollywood actor Richard Gere, a Dalai Lama follower, arrived at Bodhgaya in the evening. The tourists obviously were ecstatic. “It is a great pleasure to be with him during the New Year. Revellers across the world would pay to see the celebrity actor. Here Richard Gere will live amidst us,” said Aure Benet from southwest France.