Asia's spectacular monument of
gratitude By Raja M
Which two persons are rare in the
world? One who serves others selflessly without
expecting anything in return; and one who is
grateful toward anyone who does one a kindness.
These two persons are rare in the world. -
Gotama the Buddha
MUMBAI - Air
travelers over Mumbai will soon have something
spectacular to goggle at: a cloud-high view of the
golden Global Pagoda, the world's largest stone
monument and the first dome in
human history of this
size without any supporting pillars.
The
completed massive main dome of the Global Pagoda,
to seat
more than 8,000,
is to be officially inaugurated this Sunday in the
presence of many Indian leaders, including
possibly Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. This
100-meter-high monument, expected to be one of
Asia's major tourist attractions, bridges
Vipassana - an ancient path to liberation from all
suffering - to the complexities challenging the
world today. About 100,000 people are expected to
attend the ceremony on the island of Gorai in
suburban Mumbai, including guests from Myanmar,
Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and other
countries.
In the morning, authentic
relics of the Buddha will be enshrined in the
Global Pagoda, atop the largest meditation hall on
the planet, where more than 8,000 Vipassana
students can practice together in one-day
refresher courses. The Buddha bone relics were
offered by the government of Sri Lanka and the
Maha Bodhi Society in India in 1997, and have been
awaiting this October day when the main dome of
the Pagoda is ready. Another set of relics is
being sent by the Indian government.
The
Buddha relics had a long journey, from India to
the London Museum, where the British colonial
rulers of that time took them before World War II.
The relics were returned to the subcontinent
after
strong but peaceful protests broke out in Sri
Lanka over disrespect shown to the relics by
placing them in a museum.
The Global
Pagoda, the final resting place of these Buddha
relics, has been modeled on the famous Shwe Dagon
Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, as a mark of deep
gratitude that Vipassana Principal Acharya
(teacher) S N Goenkaji has for his teacher Sayagyi
U Ba Khin (1899-1971), the first accountant
general of independent Burma (now Myanmar), and to
the little-known chain of Vipassana teachers in
that country who preserved the teaching long after
Vipassana was lost in India and to the rest of the
world.
"If Emperor Asoka (265-238 BC) had
not sent the words of the Buddha and Vipassana
from India to the neighboring countries, they
would not have survived anywhere in the world,"
said Goenkaji. "Fortunately, some wise monks of
Sri Lanka and Myanmar as well as of Thailand,
Cambodia and Laos preserved the Dhamma literature
in its pristine purity through the teacher-student
tradition for more than 2,000 years. Similarly,
meditation teachers preserved the technique of
Vipassana in Myanmar until recent times."
The Global Pagoda symbolizes the
resurgence and quiet but rapid worldwide spread of
Vipassana, the practical quintessence of the
Buddha's non-sectarian, universal teachings.
Residential Vipassana courses, from beginners'
10-days to advanced 60-days, are being offered
without charge from more than 130 established
Vipassana centers and innumerable non-center
venues. Courses are run on voluntary donations and
services of grateful previous students who wish to
share the benefits with others.
An
instance of Vipassana as a catalyst for peace is
its growing popularity in both Israel and Iran,
where demand for courses outruns supply. "Peace in
the world is not possible without peace within the
individual," Goenkaji said. For millennia,
Vipassana has proved to be a powerful
mind-purification tool to inner peace, by leading
the practitioner to "egolessness".
Course
participants cut across all professions, strata
and religions of global society. "The Buddha has
made me a better Muslim," wrote Imam Omar Rahman
after doing a Vipassana course held at the Level 6
Security Alabama Prison, one of the most violent
prisons in the US.
Many senior Christian
priests and nuns have commented to Goenkaji that
Vipassana is Christianity in practice, with
Vipassana courses even being held in seminaries
for novices. Many prominent Hindu leaders have
undergone Vipassana courses. In India, more than
20 government circulars have been issued by the
central and state governments enabling officials
to undertake the 10-day Vipassana courses with
paid leave.
Being built with voluntary
donations, the Global Pagoda will have a large
exhibition gallery giving accurate information
about Vipassana and the Buddha's historical life.
The Pagoda combines functionality with new
architectural frontiers. A hollow stone monument
with an octagonal base, the Pagoda externally
rises and tapers at the top through a circular
bell shape (see picture), forming within a
stupendous pillarless hall 85 meters in diameter.
This pillarless 27-meter-high dome is
attracting architectural wonder considering that
thousands of stones, each weighing about 600-700
kilograms, are suspended without any external
support. "These massive stones seemingly float
over our heads, locked into place by the
interlocking principle of one stone gripping and
holding another. The more weight that is added to
the stones, the more firmly the stones grip and
hold each other," said M M Khandhar, a veteran
construction engineer with experience of building
projects in the US. When fully complete, the
pagoda will be 100 meters high.
The
biggest stone dome with a hollow interior built
anywhere in the world before the Global Pagoda was
the Gol Gumbaj Dome in Bijapur, southern India,
which is 40 meters in diameter. The Global Pagoda
is more than twice its size.
"We initially
contemplated building the pagoda in reinforced
concrete and steel. But the project aim is to
build a structure to last for a thousand years, so
we decided to use the basic building principles
that have existed in ancient India for centuries,
combined with latest construction technologies,"
explained the Mumbai-based Global Vipassana
Foundation that is executing the project. "The
construction plans were finalized following advice
from consultants and research studies, including
one by the Indian Institute of Technology,
Mumbai."
When Goenkaji first expressed his
wish to have such a dome built without any pillars
in the meditation hall, to avoid inconvenience to
meditators, almost all consultants and technical
personnel expressed their doubts, saying this was
almost impossible.
Chandubhai Sompura, an
Indian architect, provided the breakthrough by
demonstrating the idea of the locking system of
stones using bars of soap cut into the same shape
as the present stones are cut. A stone has grooves
cut both horizontally and vertically, and is
designed to interlock in both directions and hold
the stones in place.
The inner dome and
outside serrations are constructed from Jodhpur
stone, historically known for its longevity and
used in many Indian structures. About 15,500 cubic
meters of Jodhpur stone and 46,000 cubic meters of
rubble stone have been used so far, equivalent to
a 120-kilometer-long line of trucks filled with
the stones.
Posterity will look upon the
Global Pagoda with awe similar to that evoked by
the pyramids of ancient Egypt, besides the
universal message of peace and purity that Asia's
new monument of gratitude symbolizes.
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suburban Mumbai, including guests from Myanmar,
Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and other
countries. 
after
strong but peaceful protests broke out in Sri
Lanka over disrespect shown to the relics by
placing them in a museum. 
