Latest News for 2009 Buddhist Pilgimage Tours: India
Venerable Lobsang Tendar
hopes to make Buddhist Pilgrimage Tours of India and/or Tibet an annual event. These tours provide an opportunity to visit and experience sacred Buddhist places with a qualified teacher of Tibetan Buddhism as your companion and guide.
For further enquiries and to register your interest, please contact:
Tendar: (0402) 658 336
Lemai: (0432) 433 313
See below for details, or download the PDF file provided.
2009 - Buddhist Pilgrimage Tour of India with Venerable Lobsang Tendar
Three Week India Pilgrimage Tour in early February 2009 Locations visited will include:
Delhi, Varanassi, Amritsa, Sarnath, Bodhgaya, Nalanda, Vulture's Peak and Dharamsala
Tendar will be taking a group on a pilgrimage tour in India in early February 2009. India is the holy land and birth place of Buddhism, rich in culture, religion and spirituality.
The tour will start off in Delhi where there is the option to visit the famous Taj Mahal. From there, Tendar will take the group on a one week retreat in Bodhgaya, where participants can make offerings at the holy Maha Bodhi Temple and take part in daily meditation and chanting. It was in Bodhgaya that Lord Buddha attained Enlightenment more than 2600 years ago under the Bodhi tree, the descendant of which still remains today. A speical highlight of Bodhigaya will be the evening chanting and meditation under the Bodhi tree itself. Nothing can compare to this magical experience.
After Bodhgaya, we will travel to Varanasi, the second most important pilgrimage site in Buddhism. It was in Siranard that Lord Buddha gave his first sermon to the five ascetics in the Deer Park. In Sarnath, we will visit the great stupa in the Deer Park. From Siranard, we will visit Nalanda where the great Nalanda University (for Buddhist studies) once existed and Vulture's Peak where Lord Buddha gave the sermon on the Heart Sutra.
Then we leave this part of India and head North into the hills of Dharamsala, the heart of the Tibetan community in exile and the seat of the Dalai Lama's Tibetan government in exile. It is here that we will celebrate Tibetan New Year (Losar) with the Tibetan community. There is also an opportunity to travel to Amritsa to visit the magnificent Golden Temple.
The tour will then finish in Delhi where participants will head back to Melbourne after a very spiritual and enlightening experience.
This is a rare opportunity to travel with a highly respected Tibetan Buddhist monk and practitioner to the Buddha's sacred pilgrimage sites along with other spiritual and cultural sites in India such as the Ganges, Golden Temple and Dharamsala.
All participants, past, present and future, are welcome to come along on this special tour with Tendar.
