100,000 to Become Buddhists on 14th October
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100,000 to Become Buddhists in Hydrabad on 14th October
by Vishvapani, http://www.ambedkar2006.blogspot.com/, The Buddhist Channel, Oct 9, 2006
Hydrabad , India -- A hundred thousand people will become Buddhists in Hydrabad on 14th October in a huge meeting in the East Indian state of Andra Preadesh, that will include up to 400,000 people. The chief organizer is KSR Murthy, a former member of IndiaÂ’s parliament, the Lok Sabha.
The event will take place at Dr. Ambedkar Statue on the Tank Bund: the spiritual center for HydrabadÂ’s Ambedkarites. Every year a very large gathering marks the anniversary of Dr AmbedkarÂ’s conversion on 14 October; this year Murthi expects 3-400,000 to attend with 100,000 converting for the first time. Many similar ceremonies will take place around India on the same date, but this will probably be the largest conversion ceremony. The wave of conversions will culminate in a much larger ceremony in Bombay on 16 December.
Presiding over the ceremony will be Ven. Hsing Yun President of the Buddha Light organization, which is based in Taiwan and has 120 centers around the world. The presence of a senior figure in Chinese Buddhism is a significant development for the conversion movement, which has mainly made connections with the Theravadin Buddhism of South East Asia and Sri Lanka. Ven.Hsing Yun will administer the Buddhist refuges in Chinese (the ceremony through which one becomes a Buddhist) and the Ven.Vinayarakkhitha will translate them into Telugu, the local language.
Murthy, who was born in a small village a day’s journey from Hydrabad but has become a prominent spokesman for his community will be becoming a Buddhist himself on that day. He has prepared by studying works on Buddhism including Dr Ambedkar’s book, ‘The Buddha and Dhamma and taking up meditation. He comments:
‘The dalits situation is still dismal. No political party is committed to making them equal partners in building modern India and though huge sums are said to devoted to their welfare, in reality the money is going down the drain. Untouchability continues to be practiced in the villages and even senior officers from our community encounter discrimination. ‘Though we feel that conversion can't eradicate all of these problems we do believe that it can lead us to a better future in the form of Buddhist practice. I feel my whole life started to change when I first leant vipassana meditation and now that is my path of service to humanity.’ -
Wow!! Amazing!
What great merits!
Hope something similar will occur in Singapore soon 
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Spectacular!
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Wow... This is truly amazing
However, I doubt mass conversions of that scale can ever happen in Singapore.... Singaporeans are by far too pragmatic and involved with the material rat race...... -
Not to pour cold water here but the Dalits are known as the Outcastes or Untouchables in India. As we all know, in Brahmanism and modern day Hinduism the Caste system is still very strong even in modern India.
According to one of my professors at university, they are still discriminated against EVEN after conversion to Buddhism.
Hopefully, one day, discrimination against them will die out, but it probably will still be a long way ahead...... -
Not to pour cold water here but the Dalits are known as the Outcastes or Untouchables in India. As we all know, in Brahmanism and modern day Hinduism the Caste system is still very strong even in modern India.
According to one of my professors at university, they are still discriminated against EVEN after conversion to Buddhism.
Hopefully, one day, discrimination against them will die out, but it probably will still be a long way ahead...... -
Yes, I admit that I was initially concerned that the Dalits' conversion to Buddhism is nothing more than an attempt to alleviate their lowly castes... but then I read the last paragraph of the article and I felt more assured that the Dalits embraced Buddhism to achive enlightenment, not as a way out of being discriminated against.Originally posted by sanath:Not to pour cold water here but the Dalits are known as the Outcastes or Untouchables in India. As we all know, in Brahmanism and modern day Hinduism the Caste system is still very strong even in modern India.
According to one of my professors at university, they are still discriminated against EVEN after conversion to Buddhism.
Hopefully, one day, discrimination against them will die out, but it probably will still be a long way ahead...... -
CNN - India's Buddhist heritage beckons tourists
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/10/12/bodh.gaya.ap/index.html -
LOL. Tried that in Japan too. Eta are still discriminated.Originally posted by sanath:Not to pour cold water here but the Dalits are known as the Outcastes or Untouchables in India. As we all know, in Brahmanism and modern day Hinduism the Caste system is still very strong even in modern India.
According to one of my professors at university, they are still discriminated against EVEN after conversion to Buddhism.
Hopefully, one day, discrimination against them will die out, but it probably will still be a long way ahead...... -
Remains of Buddhism's founder enshrined in India
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061029/wl_sthasia_afp/indiabuddhismrelics -
300,000 Dalits convert to Buddhism
TIMES NEWS NETWORK, Nov 10, 2006
NEW DELHI, India -- Around 300,000 Dalits are estimated to have converted to Buddhism as part of 50th year celebrations of Ambedkar's deeksha, in what has again underscored a fact that Indian Buddhism has a distinct Dalit hue to it.
Reports from organisations involved in deeksha programmes around the country have come up with figures which point to a resurgent conversion activity.
Twenty lakh people are estimated to have congregated at Nagpur, Deekshabhoomi which is at the forefront of Dhammakranti, while another six lakh people attended the second biggest ceremony at Chandrapur on October 15-16.
Maharashtra, owing to Ambedkar's linkages, as also the original Dalit movement, was ahead of all other states in these conversions. Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, MP, UP and Chhattisgarh, too, conducted conversions on a largescale.
According to Y Chinna Rao, who teaches at the Centre for Dalit and Minorities Studies in Jamia Millia Islamia and has compiled a report on the nationwide activities, "The conversion ceremonies were the largest ever to be seen till now after independence. It could give a massive boost to similar activities in future."
The programmes, which started in the run-up to Dussehra through Ambedkar's birth anniversary in October, saw massive activity in Andhra Pradesh.