His Holiness the Dalai Lama was invited to give a teaching on Dharmapada at Sankissa, historically known as Sanksya, in the Farrukhabad District of Uttar Pradesh, for three days, from January 30th to February 1st 2015. This teaching event was organised by the Youth Buddhist Society (YBS) of India and funded by The Dalai Lama Trust.

YBS India was established in 1986 at Sankissa in Uttar Pradesh to bring about grass root-initiatives, involvement and development of mind among thousand of villagers in India by organizing different social activities; educational agendas, spiritual teachings and training, cultural exchange programs, community development activities, international work camps, educational tours, health camps, construction of temples and community centres for learning, agricultural improvement related works etc.

YBS India is a non-governmental, non-sectarian, non-profit, non-political people’s development movement based on the Buddhist principle of bringing peace, harmony and unity to the world. With 20 plus core local and foreign volunteers or members who lead and manage its regular activities and programs in India. “It also has over 1,000 registered members or volunteers from all over the world,” explained the president and founder of YBS, Suresh Chandra Bauddha.

He also mentioned that since 2005, YBS India dedicated its utmost effort and commitment to invite His Holiness the Dalai Lama to visit Sankissa. This did not happen until now when His Holiness was finally able to visit Sankissa and give a teaching to thousands of local and global Buddhist followers. It is therefore a great honour and privilege for his followers including the organisers to attend this teaching at Sankissa, the special place where it is believed that Buddha Shakyamuni descended from heaven after finishing his three month long teaching to his mother.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived in Sankissa in the morning of January 30th from a short flight from Delhi to Farrukhabad airport. He then arrived to the Buddha’s descending site by car and walked to the foot of the Stupa by waving his greeting hand to the crowd of hundreds of eagerly awaiting followers, where he was cheerfully welcomed by Mr. Alok Kumar Shakya, UP State Minister for Technical Education, Mr. Suresh Chandra Bauddha, President of Youth Buddhist Society of India, Kailash Chandra Bauddha, Hindi translator and member of YBS, DC and SP of Farrukhabad District and other members of the organising committee.

His Holiness’ Dharmapada teaching started on the morning of January 31st at the YBS ground, where over 20,000 audience members attended. This number included local lay people as the majority, around 500 local Indian monks, about 1,000 Tibetans many of whom had travelled from Delhi and UP to attend, and about 50 foreigners from East Asia, Europe, North America and other parts of the world. The two day teaching was directly translated to Hindi at the venue and English translation via radio transmission was also made available to foreigners.

Food and shelter were also provided free of cost to all the audience members who travelled from near and far to attend the three day event. The organisers had acquired and hired adequate mattresses, tents, barricades, carpets, sound systems and caterers from Delhi and UP areas to facilitate every possible requirement for the event to proceed successfully. Two meals – lunch and dinner were served to all the registered audience members. A meal box containing lunch was distributed to the people at the main entrance gates by volunteers and dinner was served at 6pm on the YBS grounds. According to a source, there were more than a hundred people involved in the preparation of the meals for the audience members during three day event. Mattresses and blankets were also  distributed to the attendees to provide warmth during the teaching as the weather was decidedly cold.

The Dhammapada teaching event concluded on February 1st with a word of thanks and reading of financial report by YBS President and its members as well as handing out certificates of appreciation to the core volunteers by His Holiness. Back at his hotel, His Holiness met with Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mr Akhilesh Yadav. They had also a lunch together at the hotel.

It was the enormous collective effort of all the people at the scene and behind the scenes, who were actively involved in the ground work of arrangement and implementation to organise the three day event at Sankissa very successfully. This became possible because of the support and the hard work of YBS India and the Trust was delighted to provide financial support.