Panorama & Guest Cottage of Burma Raja

Burma Raja led Sangharakshita to the guest cottage through a small, grass-covered compound on the open hillside, reached from the Upper Cart Road after about two miles via a narrow lane flanked by dense evergreens. The second bungalow, also red-roofed, stood on a slightly lower level.

“It did not take me long to make up my mind to accept his offer. Apart from bundles of unsold Stepping-Stones, I had very little luggage, and everything was soon stowed away in the back of the taxi waiting below at the roadside.”

A glassed-in veranda at the back became the Stepping-Stones editorial office. A bedroom was transformed into a shrine and meditation room — the first separate one Sangharakshita had ever had. In it, he placed a large Tibetan-style colour print of the Buddha and a miniature stupa or reliquary.

“At night, the bungalow — or guest cottage, as Burma Raja preferred to call it — was strangely quiet. The only sound to be heard was the intermittent tinkle of the tiny wind-bells hanging from the eaves of the little Burmese pavilion outside. Sometimes, I could hear their silvery chime through my dreams.

Life is sweet, the wind-bells seemed to be saying, but not lasting. It passes away, even as the sound of the wind-bells passes away on the breeze.”

— Facing Mount Kanchenjunga