Burmese Vihara and U Chandramani's Residence, Kusinara
Kusinara, India · 1949–1956
26.73920°N, 83.88960°E
Key Facts
- ◆ Sangharakshita received his sramanera ordination at Kusinara in May 1949 from U Chandramani, 'probably the seniormost monk in India'.
- ◆ On his 1949 visit, he meditated each morning in the gloom of the ancient structure housing a thirty-foot recumbent Buddha image.
- ◆ Returned in 1956; found U Chandramani seated on 'the same old cane-bottomed armchair'.
- ◆ U Chandramani had just returned from Nagpur where on 14 October 1956 he had formally administered the Refuges to Dr Ambedkar and Mrs Ambedkar, before Ambedkar administered them to 250,000+ followers.
“U Chandramani’s gaze fell upon me. ‘Is it Sangharakshita?’ he asked wonderingly, as if unable to believe his eyes.”
— In the Sign of the Golden Wheel
“He had not long returned from an exhausting trip to Madhya Pradesh, where on 14 October, in Nagpur, he had formally initiated Dr B. R. Ambedkar and his wife into Buddhism, after which the Scheduled Castes leader had himself administered the Three Refuges and Five Precepts, together with twenty-two vows of his own devising, to more than a quarter of a million of his followers.”
— In the Sign of the Golden Wheel
Source: In the Sign of the Golden Wheel
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