Cookies on the BBC website The BBC has updated its cookie policy. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. This includes cookies from third party social media websites if you visit a page which contains embedded content from social media. Such third party cookies may track your use of the BBC website. We and our partners also use cookies to ensure we show you advertising that is relevant to you. If you continue without changing your settings, we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the BBC website. However, you can change your cookie settings at any time.
Continue Change settings Find out more Search Home News
Sport
Weather
Shop
Earth
Travel ADVERTISEMENT
Culture & Identity
Food & Hospitality
Adventure & Experience
Destinations
About us
ADVERTISEMENT
.
.
.
.
.
.
By Amy Karafin 27 September 2012
At the end of the rainy season, the hilltop Dhamma Giri meditation centre in the small Maharashtran town of Igatpuri glistens. Giant raindrops fall with loud taps on banana leaves, strange flowers with heady perfume bloom just for a day and waterfalls drape down distant hills like strands of tinsel. At 4 am, when the wake-up bells ring each morning, the tall trees smell like earth and fog creeps around the elegant Burmesestyle pagodas and gazebos, making their statues of mythical lions and other creatures look as though they have just emerged from another world. Related article: Explore multicultural Mumbai with Lonely Planet
ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE PRESENTED BY
It is a magical scene, matched only by the intensity of the meditation. Those who come for the 10-day courses (and I’ve done a few) spend long hours in the depths of their minds, tinkering, observing and rewiring, employing meditation techniques originally taught by the Buddha. It is a rigorous process that calls for monastic rules – no talking, no full meals after noon,10 hours of meditating a day – that have earned the courses the nickname “the meditation marines”. But the results are so positive and so profound that the courses have grown in
#MyDubai
popularity purely by word of mouth, and travellers are
Discover desert cycling with Wolfi
increasingly fitting them into their India itineraries. Even more magical than the Dhamma Giri experience may be the location, just three hours northeast from Mumbai (formerly called Bombay).The city, better known to travellers for its excellent restaurants, architecture and shopping than for its Buddhist history, is now also a jumping-off point for visitors seeking the other high life: the dharma (the Buddha’s teachings). Those coming to India seeking enlightenment usually head straight to the ashrams and budget-friendly guesthouses of Dharamsala in the north of the country or Bodh Gaya in the
The burger McDonald’s can’t master
east, or they hit the “Buddhist circuit” – the region around Bodh Gaya, where the Buddha lived and taught. But the western
It just couldn’t compete with Mumbai’s beloved vada pav
state of Maharashtra also has a rich Buddhist tradition that goes back almost as far as the Buddha and is an excellent –
Mumbai
Food & Drink
though still barely known – destination for travellers seeking spiritual enlightenment. Part of the reason for Maharashtra’s good karma is that Mumbai has been an important port for millennia, and the Buddha’s teaching often travelled along trade routes. Beginning around the 2nd Century BC, when the teaching reached the region and monastic communities emerged, a vast network of rock cave dwellings – mostly for monks to sleep and meditate in – were carved along the routes. The construction continued
The world’s most affordable cities
for a thousand years or so, and it is thought that at its peak the region had around 1,200 caves, many of which can be easily
In these five cities, living large costs little
visited from Mumbai today.
Central America
The caves of Ajanta and Ellora, about seven hours northeast
Mumbai
of the city, contain some of Buddhism’s most beautiful art and
Living In
architecture. The 30 caves at Ajanta were carved out across
Middle East
Nepal
Romania
Budget
several centuries, beginning in the 2nd Century BC, and have stunning ornate mural paintings depicting the Buddha’s life and former lives. Unlike other caves whose paintings have faded or been lost to time, Ajanta’s were abandoned and overgrown for several hundred years, which helped to preserve them. The 34 caves at nearby Ellora, built in a later phase of Buddhism between the 5th and 7th Centuries, are a wonderland of Buddhist, as well as Hindu and Jain sculpture: 5m-tall stone Buddhas teach the dharma at the centre of
Mumbai’s urban jungle, after dark
towering domed meditation halls; other giant Buddhas line the caves in seated meditation, majestically silhouetted against the
Stay the night alongside lions, tigers and crocs
bright sun outside; and voluptuous dancing Hindu deities seem
Mumbai
to jump off the rock walls.
India
Wildlife
Nature & Outdoors
As old as Ajanta but simpler – and, some would say, more sophisticated – in design are the Karla, Bhaja and Bedsa caves – 30 in total – located two hours southeast of Mumbai near the cool hill station of Lonavla. The earlier caves here are minimalist, elegant and streamlined – perfect for rainy-season meditation. The animated Hindu deities and Mahayana Buddhist figures, wearing all manner of stone decorations, were added later, mostly in the 5th to 10th Centuries. Monastic cave life can even be seen within Mumbai. The 109
The city of Salman Rushdie’s heart
Kanheri Caves, part of a monastic complex that expanded over 1,000 years, are set right in the middle of Mumbai’s
The author’s books brought Mumbai to life
Sanjay Gandhi National Park on the city’s northern edge. And
Mumbai
Elephanta Island, which is home to a mix of Hindu and Buddhist caves, is an easy day trip for visitors, just a short ferry ride from the famous Gateway of India monument on the city’s southeast coast.
Sunny The Buddha’s teachings gradually disappeared from India
Intervals
between the 8th and 12th Centuries, but have been revived in
33°c 91°f
recent years. BR Ambedkar, a Maharashtran lawyer, humanrights activist and author of the Indian constitution (you can see
Mumbai
where he studied and practiced law in the city centre) was also a Dalit – the lowest caste in Hinduism – who fought discrimination with Buddhism as his moral platform. He inspired
IN Mon Sunny
millions of Indians, especially Maharashtrans, to convert to Buddhism in the 1950s, and today you can see Buddhist villages and temples across the state built in his honour. The biggest Ambedkar stupa is in the town of Nagpur in far northeastern Maharashtra, but Mumbai’s Dadar neighbourhood is home to the Dr Ambedkar Smarak Chaitya Bhoomi
Tue Sunny
Wed Sunny Intervals Thu Sunny Intervals
monument where regular ceremonies are held in his honour. The major ones in October and December and the occasional mass conversions attended by thousands of people are definitely worth a visit. Maharashtrans, already familiar with the Buddha’s teaching through Ambedkar, were especially receptive to the meditation courses that became popular in India in the 1950s, brought to the country by SN Goenka, an Indian who grew up and learned meditation in Burma. Today there are 13 retreat centres across the state -- including Dhamma Giri and one right in Mumbai, the Dhamma Pattana Vipassana Centre -- which are open to
Facebook
international visitors as well as locals. The Mumbai centre sits in the shadow of the monumental Vipassana Global Pagoda on the island of Gorai, a short ferry ride from Mumbai’s Borivali neighbourhood. The 96m-high golden pagoda rises up like a mirage, bringing to mind Burma’s famous Shwedagon Pagoda. Built in 2008 to showcase the Buddha's teaching, the pagoda is the world's largest unsupported dome structure, pieced together using an ancient technique of interlocking blocks. It contains a museum and
Twitter
cavernous meditation hall that seats 8,000 people. Enshrined at the base of the pagoda tower, just as they were in stupas 2,000 years ago, are pearlized remains of the Buddha -their presence is thought to be conducive to meditation. So you can take a meditation course underneath the Buddha’s relics and reflect on impermanence, just as people have done in Maharashtra, maybe even on that exact spot, for centuries. Pinterest
Practicalities Intensive residential 10-day meditation courses at Dhamma Giri and other centres in Maharashtra are free of charge, though registration is essential. Read more about the courses and apply online at dhamma.org.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Instagram
To the Ends of the Earth
Culinary Roots
Why We Are What We Are A series that examines the characteristics of a country and investigates whether they are true.
Travel Journeys First-person accounts of travellers’ inner journeys of transformation and growth as they go to some the world’s most fascinating places.
ADVERTISEMENT
The strange animal roaming Australia
A 2,000-year-old engineering marvel
India’s spectacular ‘mother’ lake
It’s definitely not what you think
It’s known as the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’
Loktak Lake receives few outside visitors despite its beauty
Australia
Remote Places
Philippines
Food & Drink
India
National Parks
Animal
The temples that had to be moved
The best countries for entrepreneurs
Ireland’s secret to a low-key life
It’s one of history's greatest archaeological engineering challenges
In these five nations, innovation flourishes
It’s about much more than fiddles and Guinness
Egypt
Heritage
Living In
Ireland
Churches & Temples
Cultural Traditions
Music
The people who make their own watches
The monster ship made from ice
The strange history of the wolf-whistle
The comeback of a 1600year-old costume
What’s your worker score?
The teenage gamers earning six figures
Explore the BBC Home
News
Sport
Weather
Shop
Earth
Travel
Capital
Culture
Autos
Future
TV
Radio
CBBC
CBeebies
Food
iWonder
Bitesize
Music
Arts
Make It Digital
Taster
Nature
Local
Terms of Use
About the BBC
Privacy Policy
Cookies
Accessibility Help
Parental Guidance
Contact the BBC
Get Personalised Newsletters
Advertise with us
Ad choices
Copyright © 2018 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.
