India, where Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment, taught, and passed into parinirvana, holds special importance for Buddhists and for Khyentse Foundation. In 2011, KF India was established to develop our work to revitalize Buddhist traditions in this unique place. Today, KF supports major initiatives in India such as a visiting professorship at Savitribai Phule Pune University, as well as small, grassroots programs that reach isolated villages.
For this article, we reached out to Wangmo Dixey of Light of Buddhadharma Foundation International (LBDFI) and Tsering Gellek of Sarnath International Nyingma Institute (SINI), both daughters of the renowned Nyingma master Tarthang Rinpoche, and asked them to tell us about their projects. KF has long supported their work in India, which is about reviving and preserving tradition and legacy and at the same time, finding new pathways for the Buddhadharma to thrive in the motherland.
“To this day, India remains a source of the world’s most profound wisdom, light, and illumination. … We in the 21st century cannot afford to lose our connection to this extraordinary tradition and spirit of past times.”
— Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Returning the Dharma to Its Roots: A Living Revival across Sacred Lands
Contributed by Wangmo Dixey, executive director, Light of Buddhadharma Foundation International; director, Dharma College; president, International Buddhist Association of America
I still remember standing beneath the sacred Bodhi Tree in Bodhgaya in 2006, watching as some 250 monastics from Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar assembled in the early morning light. They were there to celebrate the 2,550th Buddha Jayanti, and while the group was relatively small, there was a feeling that something much larger was beginning. None of us could have imagined that 2 decades later, tens of thousands of people from across the Buddhist world would gather annually at the place where the Buddha awakened.
Light of Buddhadharma Foundation International began its work in India that year with a simple aspiration: to offer food and financial support to the monastics gathering beneath the Bodhi Tree during the celebration. What began as an offering of devotion gradually evolved into a broader effort to reconnect the living dharma with the sacred landscape from which it emerged.
Over the next 21 years, that gathering grew into an international movement spanning more than 22 countries. Today, the International Tipitaka Chanting Ceremony welcomes more than 25,000 participants and visitors from across the Buddhist world. One of its most inspiring features is that every 2 years, a different country assumes the role of chief organizer, allowing responsibility and inspiration to be shared across Buddhist nations while strengthening relationships among traditions.
During this same period, India has witnessed a remarkable revival of interest in its Buddhist heritage. The recognition of Pali as a classical language by Prime Minister Modi has drawn renewed attention to one of the principal vehicles through which the Buddha’s teachings have been preserved, helping reconnect contemporary India with an important aspect of its spiritual and cultural history.
As these efforts expanded, we began to look beyond Bodhgaya toward the wider sacred geography of Buddhism. In 2012, support from Khyentse Foundation arrived at a pivotal moment. What had begun as a gathering beneath the Bodhi Tree was beginning to reveal a larger possibility: that the energy generated through pilgrimage, recitation, and devotion might help reconnect the living dharma with the broader sacred landscape of Buddhism’s birthplace.
Monastics reciting the Vinaya Pitaka at the sacred site of Kaushambi, where one of the largest surviving stupas stands today, as part of the Dharma Training Wheel program, 2025. Photo courtesy LBDFI.
It was during this period that the Dharma Training Wheel was born—the idea to travel to existing pilgrimage sites and monastic groups, creating opportunities for local communities, pilgrims, monastics, and future generations to reconnect with their Buddhist heritage. What began beneath the Bodhi Tree gradually evolved into a movement of pilgrimage, recitation, education, and community engagement across the Buddhist heartland of India.
At Lumbini, we reflect on the Buddha’s birth. At Bodhgaya, enlightenment. At Sarnath, the first turning of the Wheel of Dharma. At Rajgir, the profound wisdom teachings associated with Vulture Peak. At Vaishali, teachings on mindfulness and the sangha. At Shravasti, the countless discourses that were delivered there. At Sankasya, gratitude and enlightened activity. At Kushinagar, the Buddha’s final teachings and parinirvana. In each place, the recitation of the teachings reconnects pilgrims with the living significance of the site. They become more than historical monuments; they become places of practice, remembrance, and inspiration.
Carrying the living words of the Buddha to Vaishali—one of the most revered sites in the Buddhist world—where the Ratana Sutta was first recited, as part of the Dharma Training Wheel program, 2025. Photo courtesy LBDFI.
Inspired by the success of these programs, invitations now come from across India. Communities that once worked in isolation are becoming connected, and a renewed sense of sangha is emerging. Equally meaningful has been witnessing the dharma move beyond monasteries and pilgrimage centers into villages and local communities. Monastics increasingly bring teachings, blessings, education, and compassionate service directly to people. In this way, the dharma is not only preserved—it is lived.
Returning to the sacred sites in this way also feels like a return to something essential. It is a returning of the dharma to where it once belonged, to its own ground, its own landscape, and its own living memory. In so doing, we have come to understand the importance of roots. Without roots, even something precious can become fragmented or distant. With roots, the dharma remains grounded and able to flourish again in new generations.
Sometimes, standing beneath the Bodhi Tree as thousands of voices chant together, I think back to that first gathering in 2006. The numbers have changed, but the aspiration remains the same.
Thousands of monks and nuns reciting the Pali Canon beneath the sacred Bodhi Tree in Bodhgaya at the 20th International Tipitaka Chanting Ceremony, 2025. Photo courtesy LBDFI.
More than two-and-a-half millennia ago, the Buddha walked these very lands, teaching a path of wisdom and compassion for the benefit of all beings. To witness those teachings once again being recited, practiced, and shared across the sacred geography of India is to witness something precious returning home.
The revival of the Buddha Sasana in its motherland belongs to all who have contributed to it. It is a reminder that the dharma remains a living force—capable of crossing cultures, generations, and borders while remaining rooted in the places where it first arose. Perhaps that is what gives me the greatest hope: seeing young people, monastics, and communities coming together to ensure that these teachings continue to flourish for generations to come.
Returning the Dharma to Its Roots: A Living Revival across Sacred Lands
Contributed by Tsering Palmo Gellek, founding director, Sarnath International Nyingma Institute
In the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, among his final spoken words, the Buddha consoles his disciple Ananda in anticipation of his earthly departure and names four places his followers should visit: Lumbini, his sacred birthplace; Bodhgaya, the site of his awakening; Sarnath—Deer Park—where he first turned the wheel of the dharma; and Kushinagar, where he would pass into parinirvaṇa. Over the many centuries since this sacred proclamation, Sarnath has quietly held its historical and religious significance. Marked during Emperor Ashoka’s reign (c. 268–232 BCE) by one of his iconic lion-capital pillars and anchored at the center of Deer Park by the majestic Dhamek Stupa, Sarnath remains a tranquil space. A few impressive neem trees shade pilgrims and the remains of great monastic communities lie half-hidden in the hardened grounds. In the spring, bright red poppies flower in small beds across the hallowed earth. Unlike the other three major Buddhist sites, Sarnath feels spacious—and often, remarkably, uninhabited.
Reciting the Dharmachakra Sutra at Dhamek Stupa, Sarnath, 2018. Photo courtesy Briana Blasko.
It was in this place that, in 2006, my father Tarthang Rinpoche asked me to create an institute. With few instructions, little preparation, and no clear idea what I would be doing, I began the work. The mission he gave me was simple: to help connect the East and the West. Being relatively young and particularly naive, I took those words at face value. It took time for the Sarnath International Nyingma Institute to come into being, and there was a period when I was living and working on the campus with only one other senior volunteer. During the institute’s construction, I faced every imaginable obstacle: inner, outer—and beyond. I often tell visitors that SINI’s buildings are handmade and that I know every inch!
In 2013, after receiving a few more instructions from my father about how to support traditionally trained monastics, we launched our 3-year English for Dharma Purposes (EDP) Program. Initially, we invited the six major Nyingma monasteries (Palyul, Mindrolling, Shechen, Dorje Drak, Dzogchen, and Kathok) to select two khenpos or lopons to join. As the program gained momentum, we widened the applicant pool and appointed a monastic board to select new students from all four major traditions. The application process includes an interview, an exam in Tibetan and English, and a letter of recommendation from their sending monastery.
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche with SINI students and volunteers, Prajna Hall, SINI, 2016. Photo courtesy Briana Blasko.
Shortly after the progam was launched, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche visited our campus. He graciously shared a bowl of American-style chili with us and asked me what my mission was. I told him, and he responded with a look of bemusement. So I expanded. I said that while I had been asked to create an English program for khenpos, what I was really interested in was not what to teach, but how to teach. In his inimitable style, he said something like, “That’s good. Really good.” That comment provided me with a tank full of fuel that has lasted more than 10 years. As we know, some things some people say really stick.
Over time, SINI’s mission came into sharper focus. Year after year, with waves of impermanence softening traditional views—my own included—about what activities were “suitable” for monastics to engage in, I began to see more clearly what was cultural, what was needed, and what was vital. SINI could play an important role in bridging the gap between formal monastic training and the world. Through our residential English program, we could offer an entry into life and thinking beyond the monastic environment; we could explore a diversity of disciplines and let them organically intersect with the monastics’ training. SINI’s work has become increasingly distinctive in that it now serves a diverse group of khenpos, geshes, and lopons and acts as a hub of new approaches to monastic education and teaching. For classically trained monastics whose training and education are often focused and canonical, their ability to share the fruits of their knowledge beyond their immediate communities has long been constrained by both language and exposure to outside cultures. SINI exists to support this dynamic process of sharing—in the deepest and at times most poetic sense.
Kangyur Karchag editors reviewing files in SINI’s library, January 2025. Photo courtesy SINI.
With Khyentse Foundation’s generous support, we have offered programs ranging from English training and translation support to seed funding for the creation of the Kangyur Karchag, a 10-volume encyclopedia of all known sutras contained in the Kangyur, which was produced over 5 years with more than 50 researchers, writers, and editors. In 2025, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche returned to Sarnath to lead our inaugural Three Cups Monastic Teacher Training program, which gathered over 35 monastics from all four major Tibetan Buddhist schools—Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, and Gelug—from across the Himalayan region and beyond. A second cohort of 38 monastics followed in January 2026. And these trainings continue. Through our Academic Pathways Program, EDP graduates have gone on to study and teach at Oxford University, Harvard Divinity School, and dharma centers across Europe and North and South America. Bolstered by KF’s ecumenical and innovative vision, this momentum continues—and the ripples are widening.
Something I read about Khyentse Foundation early on was that it supports people, not the construction of buildings. We were deeply fortunate to have already received support for building the campus, and KF made our operations and programs possible. As a result, SINI has been able to achieve something real. Since the first time Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche stepped onto our campus, our entire community has felt that his hand is on our head. On a personal note, when I was unsure of my role or qualifications, he encouraged me to continue—to take a seat at the table and to rest when needed. The foundation’s professionalism and quality of engagement have always been a source of inspiration as we strive to continually steward its support as impactfully as possible.
Peace Ceremony gathering in SINI’s temple, February 2025. Photo courtesy SINI.
The revitalization of Buddhist traditions in India, and particularly at her most sacred sites, is an important investment in the future of the Buddhadharma. It matters deeply that there be an active Buddhist institute in Sarnath, the very place the Buddha consecrated with his first teaching. It tells the world the dharma is still alive, still being transmitted, still meeting people where they are.
