Source: Indo-Asian News Service
On July 30, 2006 the Indo-Asian News Service reported, "Buddhist monks have questioned the non-Buddhist control over the management of the 1,500-year-old Mahabodhi temple in Bihar's Bodh Gaya town. The monks have also accused non-Buddhists of chopping off a branch of the holy Mahabodhi tree and selling its leaves to an international mafia. They are now planning to launch fresh protests and want the central government to hand over to them the management of one of the holiest shrines of Buddhism by amending the Mahabodhi Temple Management Act. Disclosing this, Bhante Anand, president of the Bodh Gaya Mahabodhi Vihar All India Action Committee, said it was a conspiracy that the management of temple was under the control of non-Buddhists. 'We fail to understand why non-Buddhists have the control over the holiest shrine of Buddhists. We have decided to take the issue differently by lobbying, mobilising and protesting for Buddhist control over the management,' Anand told [the Indo-Asian News Service] here before the committee's two-day national meet began here Sunday. The meet is being attended by Buddhist monks from across the country to discuss the issue... Bhante said Buddhists had been given little role in managing the affairs of the temple since 1949... he temple was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in June 2002. It attracts hundreds of tourists every day."