The Buddha attained enlightenment in Bodhgaya, under the Bodhi tree, 10 km from Gaya, the ancient Hindu pilgrimage centre. The tree from the original sapling still stands in the temple premises. It is the most important Buddhist pilgrimage centre as Buddha was born here.

The magnificent Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya is an architectural amalgamation of many centuries, cultures and many heritages that came to pay their homage here. The temple definitely has architecture of the Gupta period and later ages, inscriptions describing visits of pilgrims from Sri Lanka, Myanmar and China between 7th and 10th century AD. It is perhaps still the same temple Hieun Tsang visited in the7th century.