Near Pune, Maharashtra

Sinhagad Fort — First Indian WBO Ordinations

Near Pune, Maharashtra, India · 1979

Sinhagad — a Maratha hill fort rising over a thousand feet above the Deccan plain, 25 miles outside Pune — was the site of the first Western Buddhist Order ordinations in India, in February 1979. Thirty-three people climbed to the fort for a three-day retreat culminating in ordinations. The fort is associated with the 17th-century Maratha hero Shivaji; Sangharakshita had first visited as a young monk in the early 1960s when it was 'bare and deserted.'