Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation Breaks Ground on “Great Love Village” in India

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Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation Breaks Ground on “Great Love Village” in India

By Craig C Lewis
March 2, 2024

The ground-breaking ceremony on 25 February. Image courtesy of Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation

The Taiwan-headquartered global charity and humanitarian organization Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation held a ground-breaking ceremony on 25 February for a new project called the Great Love Village in Silaunja, in Bodh Gaya, India.

“Tzu Chi is excited to announce the groundbreaking of Great Love Village in Silaunja,” Tzu Chi shared with BDG. “This project will provide 36 safe and secure homes for underprivileged families. The groundbreaking ceremony on 25 February celebrated unity and compassion, as volunteers joined hands with local officials and community members.”

Tzu Chi volunteers conduct a door-to-door survey of village residents. Image courtesy of Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation

Tzu Chi has supported India for many years through a range of humanitarian initiatives, including disaster relief, healthcare, and education. The Great Love Village in Silaunja continues this ongoing commitment to sharing compassion through socially enaged activites as a demonstraion of the power of collective kindness to bring about lasting social change.

Before construction of Great Love Village began, volunteers conducted a door-to-door survey to better understand the needs of each household. The homes in Great Love Village will be designed with the unique circumstances of the residents in mind, to offer a comfortable and supportive environment for each family.

“This village is more than just bricks and mortar. It’s about building a future where families can thrive, and children can dream big,” Tzu Chi explained. “As Master Cheng Yen said: ‘Repaying the Buddha’s homeland has always been a deeply personal aspiration of mine. May these 36 Great Love homes not only provide shelter from the wind and rain, but also foster a vibrant, model community with improved living conditions and enduring peace.’”

The Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, Republic of China, more widely known as the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, was founded in Taiwan in 1966 by the Buddhist nun and Dharma teacher Master Cheng Yen. With a focus on “putting compassion into action,” the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation is a UN-accredited NGO with some 10 million supporters and 432 offices worldwide across 51 countries, undertaking regular activities in the fields of humanitarian aid, medical care, education, and environmental sustainability.

As a global icon of socially engaged Buddhism, Master Cheng Yen has expressed a deeply held belief that all people are capable of manifesting the same great compassion as the Buddha. She has noted that true compassion is not simply feeling sympathy for the suffering of others, but is found in reaching out to relieve suffering with concrete action.

Master Cheng Yen is popularly known in Taiwan as one of the “Four Heavenly Kings” of Buddhism, the others being: Master Sheng Yen, founder of Dharma Drum Mountain; Master Hsing Yun, founder of Fo Guang Shan; and Master Wei Chueh, founder of Chung Tai Shan. These four global Buddhist orders, correspondingly known as the “Four Great Mountains,” have grown to become among the most influential Chinese Buddhist organizations in the world.

Craig C Lewis

Craig Lewis grew up in a transplanted Scottish family in southern England before setting off against all advice to seek light and wisdom in far-off places, rather than staying put and looking within. After repeated encounters with the Buddhadharma as a journalist in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and across Asia, he eventually found refuge as senior editor at BDG, where he reports and writes on the diversity of contemporary manifestations of the Dharma. Craig is also a keen mountain trekker and photographer, finding particular inspiration in the peoples, cultures, and Buddhist expressions of the Himalaya. In his column for BDG, “Chasing Light,” Craig seeks to document encounters, experiences, and epiphanies resulting from his own tentative and faltering path toward liberation. Contact: [email protected]

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