In February 2025, Buddhist Global Relief founder and chair Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi traveled to Arunachal Pradesh, India, where he visited a BGR-sponsored project in Diyun.
By Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
Arunachal Pradesh is a state in northeast India located in the most remote corner of the country. It is part of a group of states designated “protected areas,” which visitors can enter only with a special permit. This status was granted to these states to preserve the unique cultures of the indigenous peoples and to protect the pristine natural environment from polluting types of development.
Arunachal Pradesh covers a large territory. In the west it shares a border with Bhutan, and in the east with China and Myanmar. The Indian states of Assam and Nagaland lie to its south, and China’s Tibet Autonomous Region is to its north. Surprisingly, while the Indian heartland is west of Bangladesh, these states are to the latter’s east. It seems almost as if India had wrapped its arm around Bangladesh and its outstretched fingers had become the protected states.
Arunachal Pradesh is in the upper right of this map of India. Map courtesy of Google Maps.
The population of Arunachal Pradesh comprises a multitude of ethnic tribes which each have their own distinct culture, language, and traditions. In the southeast part of the state that I visited, the prominent ethnic groups are the Tai, Chakma, Singpho, and Tangsa. While Christianity and Hinduism are the largest religious groups in the state, each with about 30 percent of the population, Buddhism has a prominent place with about 11 percent. In the southeast region Theravada Buddhism seems to be the dominant religion. During my travels, I often saw Theravada temples and stupas along the road, but only seldom did I catch sight of a church or a Hindu temple.
Ever since BGR launched two projects in the state—one in the far western town of Tawang and another in the southeastern town of Diyun—I felt a strong desire to visit Arunachal Pradesh, renowned for its breathtaking natural beauty. However, the region is so remote even from the Indian heartland that I never imagined I would get the chance to travel there. Fortunately, this assumption turned out to be wrong.
In January, I wrote to my friend Bhante Ananda, general secretary of the Maha Bodhi Society (MBS) in Bengaluru, telling him I would be coming to India later that month and would pay him a visit around January 25. He replied that he would be traveling to Arunachal Pradesh shortly before that date to participate in a consecration ceremony at a branch monastery of the MBS and he invited me to join him. I jumped at the chance and accepted his invitation.
On January 22, Bhante Ananda came to meet me in Mumbai, and the next morning we were on our way to Dibrugarh, in Assam, the closest airport to eastern Arunachal Pradesh. At a transit in Kolkata we were joined by Bhante Kassapa, president of the MBS, and a younger monk named Kalyanasiri. When I stepped out of the arrival terminal in Dibrugarh, a group of Maha Bodhi monks was waiting for us, holding up a large banner welcoming me to Arunachal Pradesh.
We still had a long way to go to reach our destination, the MBS monastic college at Namsai. We boarded the cars that waited for us and drove along the bumpy road leading to Namsai, a drive of about two hours. On reaching Namsai, I was welcomed by Bhante Paññārakkhita, who had stayed with me at Chuang Yen Monastery for three months during the summer of 2018. The passage leading from the car to the main hall was lined with novices holding candles and reciting “Sadhu, sadhu” as we walked in procession. Inside the hall, I found that many of the senior monks from the MBS network had already arrived at Namsai. They included the heads of MBS centers in Assam, Tripura, and Mysuru, as well as MBS branches throughout Arunachal Pradesh.
Once we had taken our seats, Bhante Ananda introduced me to the assembly, and then I gave a short talk about my connection with the Maha Bodhi Society. My first contact with the society occurred in 1975, two years after my bhikkhu ordination, when I spent nine months at the Maha Bodhi monastery in Bengaluru. I visited the monastery again several times thereafter, and in 2019 I gave two retreats at the society’s rural meditation center and a full-day program at the Bengaluru monastery.
The next day, January 24, I woke up refreshed from the 14-hour journey of the previous day. We had breakfast at the home of the deputy chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Shri Chowna Mein, a devout and knowledgeable Theravadan Buddhist who is sponsoring the construction of residential facilities at the Maha Bodhi monastic college in Namsai and a large Buddha image at Namtok, where we would be performing the consecration ceremony.
Minister Mein explained to me that Theravada Buddhism has had a long and deeply rooted history in southeastern Arunachal Pradesh. Even when Buddhism had largely disappeared from continental India by the eleventh century, the people of Arunachal Pradesh had continued to adhere to the Buddha’s teachings. The Theravada tradition flourishes in the southeast, enriched and strengthened by contacts with Theravadan communities in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Thailand. In the far west of the state, near Bhutan, Tibetan-style Buddhism prevails, though the Maha Bodhi Society maintains a Theravada center in Tawang that BGR also supports.
After lunch at the Namsai monastery, we traveled south to another MBS monastery at Namtok, where we were to conduct the consecration ceremony. The abbot, Bhante Sangharakkhita, plans to construct a gigantic Buddha statue on a hilltop overlooking the surrounding countryside. A Thai architect, Dr. Suchai Veekuul, had been commissioned to design the image, but construction has not yet started. At the foot of the hill the abbot plans to construct a monastic residence on one side and a public Dhamma hall on the other.
In the mid-afternoon, the monks assembled at the top of the hill, a large flat area of exposed soil. Both Dr. Suchai and Minister Mein joined us for the ceremony. We set up a small altar with a Buddha statue and made offerings of flowers, candles, and incense. After a brief puja, the monks took bowls of pure water and circumambulated the hilltop in a serpentine formation, sprinkling water over the grounds while chanting auspicious suttas and verses of blessing. This marked the consecration of the ground where the Buddha image will sit.
Consecrating the ground by sprinkling blessed water.
The next day, after breakfast, Ven. Sangharakkhita gave us a tour of the surrounding jungle. Apart from a dirt footpath, the terrain is utterly wild. The hills are covered with an array of gigantic trees, wild banana trees, palm trees, bamboo clusters, and tangled bushes, creepers, and vines. Through occasional clearings, we could see far into the distance across the vast plain of lower Arunachal Pradesh.
Looking out from the jungle to the plain below.
The tour over, we climbed into the cars waiting for us and returned to the main hall of the monastery, where we took leave of the staff and lay supporters. We then set out for Diyun, where BGR has a project supporting the students at the local MBS school. The road from Namtok to Diyun, like so many roads in rural Arunachal Pradesh, is rough and bumpy, and during the dry season traffic stirs up chaotic clouds of dust. All along the route dogs lay on the road, soaking up the sun, and only as our vehicle drew near would they leisurely get up and move to the side.
In this closeup map of Arunachal Pradesh, Namsai and Diyun are enclosed in boxes. Namtok is not on this map, but it lies to the south of Diyun.
We reached the Maha Bodhi center at Diyun at about 10:45 am. A crowd had gathered at the entrance, holding up a banner of welcome. The children of the Maha Bodhi school lined up in two rows along the path leading into the center, and a marching band of teenage girls, playing drums and cymbals, conducted us to a hall inside the grounds. After a few words of welcome and thanks, we freshened up with a quick wash and went for our midday meal, which we ate outdoors.
Welcomed by the marching band.
In the early afternoon, we went to the main assembly hall, where a large group of students and teachers had gathered. Bhante Ananda again introduced me to the community, and students came forward to express their gratitude for the support they have been receiving from BGR. When my turn to speak came, I expressed my appreciation to the Maha Bodhi Society for its work in reviving Buddhism in India, the vision and aspiration of its founder, Ven. Acharya Buddharakkhita. I explained how I had helped to found Buddhist Global Relief back in 2008 and how BGR had come to launch a project to provide food assistance and school supplies to the students. After my talk, I participated in a question-and-answer session with the senior students, who all spoke fluent English.
The Maha Bodhi school in Diyun has a total enrollment of about 700 students. While most students live at home and travel to school by bus, 212 students from more remote areas live at the school. Of these, 57 are boys and 155 are girls. They stay in the dormitories: two for the boys and six for the girls. The school has an excellent reputation, and among the schools of this district its students consistently rank at the top in academic achievement. Since competition for admission is keen, the school makes special efforts to ensure it selects only the most promising applicants.
The next day, January 26, was the 76th Indian Republic Day—an auspicious occasion for me to be visiting the center. While India gained independence from Britain in 1947, it was only on January 26, 1950, that the Indian congress adopted its constitution, establishing the nation as a republic. The day was celebrated with great fanfare on a large sports field. Together with other dignitaries, I sat on a stage overlooking the field. As the guest of honor, I was invited to unfurl the Indian flag, and as the flag opened up, it rained down a burst of marigolds, India’s national flower.
After introductory remarks by the organizers of the event, Bhante Ananda requested me to give the keynote address. I began by expressing my amazement at the wonder known as India, a country that truly embodies the principle of “unity in diversity.” The states that make up the Indian nation differ vastly in their demographics, cuisine, languages, cultures, and topography, which ranges from Kanyakumari at the southern tip to the Himalayas in the north. And yet, despite these differences, what draws all its people together is a shared love for their nation, which they call “Mother India,” a designation very different from our western preference to call our country “the fatherland.”
I continued by reminding the audience that, while India has developed a strong economy and advanced technologies, it is not business leaders or computer wizards that account for its greatness on the global stage. Rather, it is India’s rich spiritual heritage that shines most brightly, and the greatest gift India has made to world spirituality is the Buddha Dhamma. I continued by applauding the revival of Buddhism in India that began in the last century, and I highlighted the roles that three distinguished individuals made to this revival. One was Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian constitution, who led a mass conversion to Buddhism of the Dalits—the outcast community—and in his writings highlighted the social dimensions of the Dhamma. Another prominent figure was S.N. Goenka, who revived the practice of vipassana meditation in India and made the entire Pali Canon available in digital form. And the third was Ven. Acharya Buddharakkhita, who established the Maha Bodhi Society in Bengaluru and spurred the creation of well-trained monastic communities throughout the country.
After my talk, and talks by several other dignitaries, the students took over, entertaining us with songs, dances, acrobatics, and comic skits. The act that made the strongest impression on me was a dance routine performed by eighteen teenage girls. The girls formed nine pairs, each pair representing a different ethnic group of Arunchal Pradesh. Each pair wore garments typical of their ethnic community and danced to songs distinctive of that community. The songs to which they danced would periodically change. While their song played, the girls from that ethnic group would come to the front of the line and perform their special dance while the other girls remained in the background. When another song replaced it, the next pair of girls would come forward to dance and the others would withdraw into the background.
After a busy morning, the afternoon was a time to relax. Many of us—monks, students, and teachers—drove a few miles out from the center to a nearby river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, where we chatted, threw stones across the stream, and simply enjoyed the enchanting scenery.
The next day, after breakfast, we left Diyun. As we drove away, I realized it was a privilege for BGR to be supporting the school here.
We set out to visit the site of a Buddha image, 180 feet high, whose construction was being sponsored by a wealthy businessman. The image was designed by Dr. Suchai, the same Thai architect commissioned to design the statue at Namtok. This image was close to completion, and the photo here gives an idea of its dimensions.
After taking our meal at a restaurant run by the businessman’s daughter, we drove to a gathering of the Arunachal Pradesh Bhikkhu Sangha, an association of Theravada bhikkhus from this part of the state. I was surprised to see such a large gathering of monks: I counted 45 who were not associated with the Maha Bodhi Society. They greeted me at the entrance of the hall, again with a banner welcoming me to Arunachal Pradesh. Inside the hall, several monks gave short talks honoring me for my work, after which they presented me with a plaque. Finally, they invited me to speak, and after my talk we went outside for the usual photo ops, after which we dispersed.
We next visited the Golden Pagoda, a monastery a few miles further down the road. The heart of the monastery, as its name suggests, is a beautiful golden pagoda constructed in Burmese style, similar in design to the famous Shwe Dagon Pagoda in Yangon.
Adjacent to the Golden Pagoda is another large temple with a gigantic Buddha image in a northern Thai style. Although the image looks as if it were made of solid stone, we were told it consists entirely of bamboo covered with gold leaf.
Finally, after a busy day, we returned to the monastery at Namsai, settled down for a good night’s sleep, and early the next morning departed for the Dibrugarh airport. Along the way, we made a short detour for a view of the Brahmaputra River, now reduced in size during the dry season. And then the trip ended with the long flight to Bengaluru.
Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi is co-founder and chair of Buddhist Global Relief.
