Big Trouble Under The Banyan Tree.(World Affairs)(Mahabodhi Temple in India)(Cover story)

Byline: Sudip Mazumdar

The holiest site in the Buddhist world has become mired in corruption, mismanagement and crime.

For thousands of years, a certain spot under a huge tree in a sleepy village in northeast India has drawn Buddhists from around the world. Here, some 2,500 years ago, a wandering monk named Siddhartha Gautama sat in meditation and attained enlightenment, becoming the Buddha. Ever since, millions of his followers have considered the tree (actually a pipal, though known as a banyan) and an adjoining temple the holiest of sites, which they try to visit at least once in their lives. But the Mahabodhi Temple, as the complex is known, makes for an unlikely pilgrimage destination. It is mired in crime, corruption and astounding sacrilege. Relics have been stolen. Goons harass visitors, particularly women. Garbage piles up around the temple. Beggars attack devotees. And con artists posing as monks sell leaves off the holy tree.

How did Mahabodhi Temple become such an un-Buddhist place? Many blame the government. Nearly 50 years ago, an Indian law stipulated that the site be managed and protected by a nine-member committee that must include a Hindu majority--which strikes many Buddhists and their sympathizers as absurd. Over the years, investigators say, this committee has failed to account for millions of dollars' worth of donations. They claim that hundreds of idols and statues have disappeared from the temple--and suddenly reappeared in Western museums and homes. Last year, a wealthy Thai Buddhist donated an expensive SUV for temple upkeep. It now sits in the garage of the committee's chairman, Jitendra Srivastava (he says he uses it for temple-related work).

Lately, the faithful have begun to fight back, organizing protests to pressure the government into turning the management of the Mahabodhi Temple over to an eminent group of Buddhists, including people like the Dalai Lama. "If [Hindu] temples, churches, mosques and gurdwaras [Sikh temples] are not under the control of other sects, then why is the same not applicable to Mahabodhi Temple?" wonders Bhadant Anand, president of the Bodhgaya Mahabodhi Vihar All-India Action Committee, a pressure group.

He and other angry Buddhists have called on their brethren the world over--who now number more than 350 million--for support, and there are some signs their campaign is having an impact. Protests last year sparked a police investigation of three committee members, including Bhikkhu Bodhipala, a Buddhist monk, for his alleged role in an incident in which a branch of the holy tree was chopped off--supposedly to be sold to a wealthy Buddhist. Investigators are relying on testimony from the temple gardener, Deepak Malakar, who says he cut the limb at Bodhipala's request and deposited it at his residence. "I could not defy ...