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Buddhism, perhaps, is India’s priceless gift to Asia, some say, ‘The Light of Asia’, which traversed across the Asian continent and beyond for over the past two thousand and five hundred years, since its birth in the cradle of the Gangatic basin in northern India between the 6th and 4th BCE.As Buddhism, with its cardinal thoughts, methods and practices, travelled distant lands of Asia – one through the ‘Uttarapath’ of central Asia and trans-Himalayan highlands (also known as the northern ‘Silk route’), and the other through peninsular India via erstwhile Ceylon (now, Sri Lanka) to Thailand, Indonesia and Burma (southern ‘silk route’, mostly through water way) – it blossomed into multifaceted school of thoughts and practices along the way, facilitated by legendary Buddhist missionaries under the patronage of emperor Ashoka.
Now at the third millennium, Buddhism continues to be one of the influential spiritual forces with a following of over 500 million people across 30 countries, predominantly in Asia, but also including US, Europe and Canada.Northeast India – a bridgeheadCuriously, until recently, very few knew much of the region’s rich Buddhist traditions with the presence of all the major Buddhist schools in several North-eastern states – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura. Much less was known of the Buddhist roots in the region, and how it arrived in this part of the country.Nonetheless, given its geographic proximity to the Southeast Asian region, the northeast is now being seen as a bridgehead to the Southeast Asia. While works are going on in various parts of the northeast to re-establish the historic links with the neighbouring Southeast Asian region through road-ways, railways and waterways, Tripura finds itself in a better position to make good of all these connectivity.
Once the ‘Indo-Bangla Friendship Bridge’ over the river Feni at Sabroom is completed, South Tripura will be the gateway to the waters of Bay of Bengal via the Chittagong seaport in Bangladesh, barely 70 km away from the international border. The facility is expected to trigger trade, travel and tourism across the Indo-ASEAN region. In fact, Buddhist tourism would play a catalyzing role in creating, through trade and community-run enterprises, cross-cultural bonding among people, and promoting conservation of both cultural and natural resources of the developing countries of Asia. Importance of Buddhist approach “Mind is the forerunner of everything, mind is supreme and all are mind-made. If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts, happiness follows him/her like a never-departing shadow. If with an impure mind one speaks or acts, suffering follows him/her like the wheel that follows the feet of the ox.” Dhammapada In the contemporary world, where war and environmental concerns, including human-induced climate change dominate world political discourses, Buddhist approaches to life and living seem to be more relevant now than ever before. Dhamma is at the heart of Buddhist ethics, the values of love and compassion flowing from it, and the message of peace, non-violence and global harmony delivered by Buddhist teachings are the key to addressing the global issues of hate, war, forced migration and environmental justice. Buddhist approaches to education and teaching essentially focus on ‘training the mind’, and transforming human energy, intelligence and character into modern, intelligent individuals capable of leading a resilient and sustainable life style in harmony with nature. It’s in this context, a world class Buddhist University is being proposed in southern end of Tripura, which is emerging as a multi-focal hub and one of the vital connectors between south Asian region and the ASEAN countries, where Buddhism is a living culture.
