Sankassa Pilgrimage Guide and Sanitation Awareness Program (launching in 2014!)
The Great Stupa of Sankassa is considered one of the eight great Buddhist pilgrimage sites. Like other sites associated with the historical Buddha’s life, it is located in Northern India’s Gangetic Plaines. Buddhist sources tell us Sankassa is where the Buddha descended after teaching his mother for three months in Tushita Heaven. The site is marked by the remnants of the Great Stupa of Sankassa, as well as a historically significant Ashokan Pillar, both are central to the village. You're free to find more information in our interview papers, collected in a short list at the main page.
The village is comprised of members of the Sakya caste in Uttar Pradesh, who are among the handful of Indian groups revitalizing Buddhism in India. Nekorpa’s partner is the Youth Buddhist Society, a dynamic, volunteer organization working in local communities to promote spiritual education, organic agriculture, and cultural preservation. Nekorpa is collaborating with Deer Park Institute of Himachal Pradesh to publish a pilgrimage guide in Hindi and English to the Sankassa Stupa and surrounding area, initiate sanitation-awareness and refuse clean-up programs in the nearby schools, developing a tree planting program, and a program to install and provide technical training for solar panel and cookers.