In the last month of the year, His Holiness the Dalai Lama embarked on a teaching engagement in Sankisa, one of the eight holy and major Buddhist sites, in northern India’s state of Uttar Pradesh. An estimated 40,000 strong devotees of mainly Indians thronged the holy place to listen to His Holiness give a three-day teaching on Shantideva’s ‘A Guide to Boddhisatva’s Way of Life’. Likewise, netizens across the globe were glued onto the live webcast of His Holiness’ discourses via his official Facebook page @རྒྱལ་བ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ། (Tibetan version) and @दलाई लामा(Hindi version).
It is said that the Buddha reappeared in Sankisa, also known as Sankasya, after spending a rainy season teaching in the Heaven of Thirty-three, where his mother had been reborn. The site was identified and marked by Emperor Ashoka who had a pillar erected at the spot topped by an elephant capital.
Of late, His Holiness the Dalai Lama often remarks that it’s his fourth principal commitment in life to revive what he calls ‘ancient Indian knowledge derived from Nalanda tradition’ in modern India.
The recent teaching in Sankisa is befitting of his yet another concerted effort to revive the ancient wisdom of India both from the point of view of the place as well as the topic of his teaching which was originally taught by Shantideva, one of the foremost Nalanda masters.
The entire three-day teaching was translated into different languages including in Hindi given the wider Indian devotees in attendance and broadcast live to cater to faithful in the virtual world.
A glimpse of netizens engagements to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s three days teaching in Sankisa, UP:
