Bodh Gaya, India -- The main hall of the Gaya train station looks like a morgue. It's a wintry morning and bodies lie everywhere in white shrouds, black blankets or red bedsheets.

Foreign tourists heading for the Tripitaka festival attended by Buddhist monks from 54 countries, emerge from trains with trepidation. They negotiate their way through the rows of bodies. These are not dead people, merely the passengers, beggars, vagrants and rickshawallas whose only shelter in Gaya is the train station. The tourists pick their way through puddles of dog urine and cow dung, get into taxis and head for Bodhgaya, 20 minutes away.

It's where the Buddha got enlightenment 2600 years ago. In the early morning, it looks serene. The roads are lined with trees. Monks walk single-file down the road, muttering mantras. A drum sounds from one of the town's many monasteries and temples. Birds sing in the trees. The butter lamps in the temples glow softly. At sun-up, Bodhgaya stands fully revealed.

The roads are patchy; sidewalks broken; muddy lanes behind temples and monasteries are ankle-deep in a garbage cocktail composed of polythene bags, waste matter and earth. A small clearing between two brand new hotels, right in front of the Bhutanese temple, is home to tumble-down huts with potbellied children rolling in the dirt alongside filthy piglets. Nearby is a pond, green with slime and choked with plastic water bottles and polythene bags. "How can a society accept this level of poverty? Why is nobody doing anything about it," asks Japanese photographer Mizuno who says he's too numb to take photos. He is one of many visitors who are here to take part in the 'Karmapa
900' ceremony, a year-long event that commemorates the birth of the first Karmapa Lama.

In April 2009   , It was unforgotable trip to Indian  for us , me and my friend  , Choi WOn Suck  went to India from Bangkok for the purpose of ordination of my friend Choi wonk suck , a korean boy who was my classmate and also the best  friend of me  , kalayanamitta . He was keen to be a Bhikkhu . We met each other  at Mahachularlongkorn University Bangkok and studied together .  Having learn  a semester , In 2008  he invited me to come and study in  korean unfortunately it was unsuccessful for me becous of   various cusmenstance .  I spent one month in Korean with my friend and others Myanmar community then i came back to Bangkok . It was his gratutude for caring me while i was in korean . I am thank to all .
In 2009 , I got a chance to study at IBC International Buddhist College southen Thailand and i moved there for the purpose of further study of my Master degree . While i was studying at IBC , my friend contact me to help for his ordination in my Myanmar but i had a idea that we would be better to go to  India rather then Myanmar becouse it was greatland for Buddhist people as well as for the world so, we were also going to do great things for us so that it would be alway in our memory . We choiced to go to India and to ordain . It will be always in my mind the image of shaving  the my friend  head under the Bhodi tree and ordained in the  ordination hall of MAHABHODI TEMPLE  under the preceptorship of Usandamuni . For the memorization of our past , i post some photos here .

A shrine in the Buddhist temple in Bangkok Cartons of milk and children's toys are placed at the shrine in the Buddhist temple in Bangkok
Bangkok, Thailand -- In a quiet corner of a Buddhist temple in Bangkok, an impromptu shrine has been created.