- Dhammadharini
- Apr 7
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 8
Dhammadharini Community
April 7, 2025
One of Dhammadharini's initiatives for 2025-2026 is to provide support and encouragement to the Indian Bhikkhuni Sangha.
We’d like to give you an update about some of the recent information that Ven. Tathaloka Theri has been sharing about India, as well as about some exciting upcoming plans.
As you read what we share here, we invite you to contemplate:
All of these efforts may seem like small things, taken independently.
But, bit by bit, these are helping to rebuild the foundation of the Indian Bhikkhuni Sangha: Reminding people that the ancient sacred history of Buddhism in India very much included the Bhikkhunis as well. Reminding that there were fully-enlightened women walking this landscape, and centuries-old traditions to honor those women.
It is a slow process, to uncover this history, to speak about it, document it, share it - but as more people hear these things and they become familiar, they will be reminded of the potential for the modern Bhikkhunis of India to also walk this path towards awakening, and that there is true value in supporting them to do so.
And so, our hope is that - by spreading and sharing this information - it will lead to greater care, support, and respect for the women of India who devote their lives to this path.
Below you can learn more about…
Honoring Mahapajapati Gotami’s Parinibbana, and the Vaishali Parinibbāna Landscape
Walking pilgrimage of Mahapajapati’s Great Renunciation Trail
Preparing Bhikkhuni materials for the Uttar Pradesh Buddhist Tourism circuit
Nurturing the future leaders of the Indian Bhikkhuni Sangha
Ayya Tathaloka’s blog posts about India
How you can help
Honoring Mahapajapati Gotami’s Parinibbana, and the Vaishali Parinibbāna Landscape
In February, we celebrated the lunar anniversary of Mahapajapati Gotami’s Parinibbana (full program recording here). Last year and this year, there has been an annual observance of this anniversary developing at Mahapajapati’s Parinibbana stupa site in Vaishali.
You may read more about this year’s celebration, an initiative of the Nava Nalanda Mahavihara and Indian Ministry of Culture, including photos and local news articles, here on Ayya Tathaloka’s blog:
This stupa site is in a landscape which knew the final days of the life of the Buddha, as well as of his leading disciples, Bhikkhuni Sangha founder Mahapajapati Gotami Theri, and "Guardian of the Dhamma" Ananda Thero.
When Chinese monastic pilgrims arrived in Vaishali India in the 5th and 7th centuries, they found a cluster of sacred sites, honored and visited by faithful Buddhist pilgrims, honoring great events at the end of the life of the Buddha and his Mahaparinibbana, as well as the Parinibbanas of Mahapajapati and Ananda.
These sites were lost to collective memory for centuries, but now - with the help of those ancient pilgrims’ records - they are being rediscovered, though not yet restored and developed.
Ayya Tathaloka, in another recent article, shares about what is known of these sites in the "Vaishali Parinibbāna Landscape.”
Walking pilgrimage of Mahapajapati’s Great Renunciation Trail
During that February program honoring Mahapajapati Gotami Theri’s Parinibbana, we also presented about exciting plans that are developing:
There are plans underway, headed by the Light of Buddhadharma Foundation International, Deepak Anand of the Retracing Bodhisattva Xuanzang Project and Nava Nalanda, to develop and launch a Bhikkhunis’ walking pilgrimage of Mahapajapati’s Great Renunciation Trail.
Here is the segment of our program that shares about these pilgrimage plans which are forming.
Since that program, there have been further developments. The planned dates for the pilgrimage have been set for December 16-22, with the pilgrimage launching from Tilaurakot - Kapilavastu, Nepal - its final destination the Mahāpajāpatī Gotamĩ Parinibbāna Stupa mound in Vaishali.
For this initial year, the group is planned to be relatively small - but we hope for support to send a contingent of Dhammadharini Bhikkhunis, as well as representatives from other bhikkhunis’ communities around the world, to be able to join.
The following year, December of 2026, the aim is for much larger--with 500 Bhikkhunis walking in the footsteps of our bhikkhuni founders on the Great Renunciation Trail together.
In combination with this second larger pilgrimage, there is a plan to offer a large statue of Mahapajapati Gotami Theri for village Birpur (the site of our bhikkhuni founders Parinibbāna Stupa mound), along with with 499 smaller statues to be carried by and kept by the pilgrims.
Preparing Bhikkhuni materials for the Uttar Pradesh Buddhist Tourism circuit
Ayya Tathaloka, working at the request of organizers Ayya Sakya Dhammadinna and Rajesh Chandra in Uttar Pradesh, has been preparing materials for the pilgrimage sites specifically on the ancient awakened Bhikkhuni Arahants, to incorporate in the Uttar Pradesh Buddhist Tourism circuit. These are planned to be published for the December 2025 International Tipitaka Chanting in Bodhgaya and in Uttar Pradesh.
She is also preparing similar materials for Bihar and other areas beyond Uttar Pradesh, to be used by the Indian pilgrimage interpreters.
These materials will perform a vitally important role, so that those visiting the sacred sites of India on pilgrimage will be learning - not just about the Buddha and his great Arahant Bhikkhu disciples - but also about the great Arahanti Bhikkhuni disciples.
Nurturing future leaders of the Indian Bhikkhuni Sangha
Some of you met the wonderful Venerable Vandana Bhikkhuni, a bright young Indian Bhikkhuni who spent the 2024 Vassa with Dhammadharini. We are very happy to let you know that she has applied to return to continue her Bhikkhuni Vinaya Studies in theory and practice during the 2025 Vassa with us. Let us know if you would like to contribute to sponsoring her journey!
We are also planning to send a delegation from Dhammadharini to the Sakyadhita Conference - the international conference for Buddhist women - which is to be held in Malaysia in June, and Ven Vandana has received a Sakyadhita scholarship and plans to join. We are also hoping to support the first New Zealand Bhikkhuni and the first Khmer bhikkhuni to join the Sakyadhita conference.
Additionally, we are hoping for another promising young monastic from India, Samaneri Avera, to join us at Dhammadharini this Vassa - she is deeply inspired to practice in a forest hermitage together and her heart is inclining to the Upasampadā -- you may have seen her joining our online programs, and. we look forward to having her join us here in person.
Ayya Tathaloka’s blog posts about India
We have been working on developing Ayya Tathaloka’s blog on the Dhammadharini website - we have many recent and past writings of hers, which we will gradually be posting. We have created a tag for her posts which relate to India - you can see those posts here, and more will be added over time.
How can you help?
Sharing this information with friends who may be interested
Sign up for the Indian Bhikkhuni Support Project mailing list.
Financial and moral support for these projects are very welcome - including for:
Ven. Vandana’s travel expenses
Bhikkhuni participation in the Great Renunciation Trail pilgrimage in December
General support for the Indian Bhikkhuni project
Please give the designation of your gift as “India Project” - plus any further detail about how you wish your donation to be used.
