We enjoyed our visit at these amazing monuments.The Great Buddha statue is 19.5 m (64 ft) high representing the Buddha seated in a meditation pose, or dhyana mudra, on a lotus in the open air. The Statues of Ten Great Disciples of Buddha stand on either side of the Great Buddha, as if protecting or following him. They are: Sariputta, Mahamoggallana, Mahakassapa, Subhuti, Punna, Mahakaccana, Anuruddha, Upali, Rahula and Ananda.
The total height of the construction is 80 ft. The statue was designed by V. Ganapati Sthapati and took seven years to complete using the labor of 12,000 stone masons. Both The Buddha and the Disciples statues were constructed from a combination of sandstone and red granite blocks.
A hollow spiral staircase inside the statue leads from the ground up to the chest. Shelves on the interior walls display 16,300 small bronze images of the Buddha. The Great Buddha statue is located in a garden at the end of Temple Street and is surrounded by smaller sculptures of Buddha’s ten principal disciples, five on each side. The Great Buddha was possibly the largest Buddha statue in India at the time and was consecrated on 18 November 1989 by the 14th Dalai Lama.
On Jan 1, 2023 we visited the Ananda Buddha Bihar also in Bodh Gaya. It is a pagoda with a white buddha statue.