Time Place Teacher Disciple and Topic

The Tibetan tradition holds that at the moment of initiation five things are paramount; time, place, teacher, disciple and the topic or content of the transmission. Who is Urgyen Sangharakshita, what is his connection with the tradition, who were his teachers, and what did he learn from them? What were the augers of time and place, and what does it all mean to us?

This pilgrimage aims to strengthen our awareness and connection with these auspicious five; Time Place Teacher Disciple and Topic, as they constellated in the life of our founder Urgyen Sangharakshita. Pilgrimages are trails of tales. The tales and the trails of this pilgrimage take us into a magical world; the Hidden land in which Sangharakshita unfolded, and the crucible in which our Movement was forged.

What’s it Like

The pilgrimage has two distinct parts. First, we explore Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Ghoom, and then we go on Retreat in beautiful Sikkim.

Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Ghoom are so thickly populated with sites connecting us with Bhante and his eight main teachers that the pilgrimage is quite naturally outward going and stimulating.

Typically we explore the sites, wander around, taking them in. Sometimes, we can simply look – perhaps it’s someone’s house – so we just take darshan, reflect on its significance, gathering impressions, making connections. Sometimes we sit listening to readings; poems, bits of life stories, teachings, memoirs, and at others we meditate and perform puja together.

In Sikkim, we approach the heart of the Beyul or the Hidden Land of Dremo Shong. The Fruit Bowl Beyul is a mandala of fertile river valleys, lakes, mountains, ravines and caves. Blessed by Padmasambhava, it was discovered and opened in the fourteenth century by Rigdzin Godem - one of the Three Supreme Emanations of Guru Rinpoche. It was for a millennium a paradise for practitioners, some of the greatest sages came here and left their mark. Especially at Khechupari and Tashiding; where we have longer stays, the pilgrimage is naturally less active, more meditative and reflective. Our main task will be to allow ourselves to open up to the blessings focused at those places.

In Brief

When: 7th - 30th September
The Teachers of the Present pilgrimage takes place twice a year – Usually in March and September.

Cost: The commercial value of the 24 day pilgrimage is high, but our Pilgrims simply agree to cover the remarkably low costs (Approximate: 250 UK Pounds), and then make a donation towards Dharma and Social projects we sponsor.

Included: All accommodation transport food and site fees.

Excluded: Airfares and Insurance.

Connections: You can be met at either Delhi or Kolkata Airports and accompanied to Kalimpong by Train. Kolkata (Calcutta) is the closest international airport, Delhi a little cheaper. Alternatively, you can get a Domestic flight to Bagdogra and likewise be met and accompanied to Kalimpong – 3 ½ hrs.

Travel: 6-9 pilgrims, plus your guide and two assistants. Easy walking every day. Not much travelling. The short trips on good scenic roads are by Jeep. In Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Gangtok, we use Taxis when it’s too far to walk. A day-long trek in Sikkim is optional.

Accommodation and Food: Mostly twin share. In Sikkim, we twice stay in clean rustic rooms and eat good home cooked food. Other accommodation and food is of a medium or high standard.

Practice: The first half is active, and stimulating. Every day filled with constant reminders of Bhante and his eight main teachers. The second half is rural; meditative, reflective, - a rare chance to deepen one’s connection with the ancient tradition at places blessed by Padmasambhava.

More Information: When you book we will send information sheets covering; Spiritual Preparation, Visas, Insurance, What to Take, What to Expect, Health and Safety, Recommended Reading, Detailed Itinerary, Character Notes, Literary Extracts and the Practice of Pilgrimage.

Booking: Contact us at justratna@yahoo.com

An Ancient Connection Re-Awoken

Some of the most familiar object from Sangharakshita’s childhood were Tibetan ritual implements from the Lama Temple of Peking; favourites included a Thanka of the Buddha and a large Vajra bell - which “rarely could I refrain from ringing”. At nine Bhante studied the life of the Buddha, and at 11 began praying daily to the Buddha and wrote “The Life of Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha” “which when finished I copied out in purple ink on my best notepaper”.

By the age of 17, Bhante had already regained Insight. “At John Watkins, which thereafter I visited frequently, I bought the two books by which I have been most profoundly influenced. These were the Diamond Sutra, which I read first in Gemmell's then in Max Muller's translation, and the Sutra of Wei Lang (Hui Neng). If, when I read Isis Unveiled, I knew that I was not a Christian, when I read the Diamond Sutra I knew that I was a Buddhist. Though this book epitomizes a teaching of such rarefied sublimity that even Arahants, saints who have attained individual nirvana, are said to become confused and afraid when they hear it for the first time, I at once joyfully embraced it with an unqualified acceptance and assent. To me the Diamond Sutra was not new. I had known it and believed it and realized it ages before and the reading of the Sutra as it were awoke me to the existence of something I had forgotten. Once I realized that I was a Buddhist it seemed that I had always been one, that it was the most natural thing in the world to be, and that I had never been anything else. My experience of the Sutra of Wei Lang, which I read in the original Shanghai edition of Wong Mou Lam's translation, though taking place at a slightly lower level, was repeated with much greater frequency. Whenever I read the text I would be thrown into a kind of ecstasy.”

Going Forth

Within two years, in 1944, two days before his nineteenth birthday, the Army dispatched Bhante to the land of the Buddha. After a further two years with the Army in Delhi, Sri Lanka and Singapore, and six months in India testing the waters, on the 18th of August 1947, at Kasauli in the foothills of the Himalayas, Bhante ritually and actually went forth.

“There was only one way out. Religious societies, organizations, and groups, far from being a help to spiritual development were only a hindrance. However lofty the ideals with which they were founded, they had a natural tendency to degenerate, in the hands of selfish human beings, into instruments for the acquisition of money, position, power, and fame. Instead of trying any longer to work with them we would follow the example of the Buddha and sever at one stroke our connection with an incorrigible world. We would renounce the household life and go forth into the life of homelessness as wanderers in search of Truth. For the last few months we had only sat hesitantly on the shore of the vast ocean of the spiritual life. Now, casting aside all fear, we would plunge boldly in.

“Having made this resolution, we lost no time putting it into effect. With the help of a handful of gerua-mati, the reddish-brown earth used since time immemorial by Indian ascetics, we dyed our shirts and sarongs the traditional saffron of the world-renunciant. Suitcases and watches were sold, trousers, jackets, and shoes given away, identification papers destroyed. Apart from the robes that we were to wear we kept only a blanket each and our books and notebooks. As for the last three months hair and beard had been allowed to grow we did not need shaving tackle.”


“As we left Kasauli it was raining, but, as in the course of our descent we emerged from the clouds into the bright sunshine below, we saw arching the road, at intervals of a few dozen yards, not only single but double and triple rainbows. Every time we turned a bend we found more rainbows waiting for us. We passed through them as though through the multicoloured arcades of some celestial palace. Against the background of bright sunshine, jewel-like glittering raindrops, and hills of the freshest and most vivid green, this plethora of delicate seven-hued bows seemed like the epiphany of another world.” The Rainbow Road

Entering the Mandala

A free-lance wanderer, Passport and ID burned, clothes dyed in mud, barefoot, moneyless, without shaving or cutting hair; Bhante walked India with a single companion for three years. On the 12th of May 1949, Bhante became a Sramanera in Kushinagar with U Chandramani as his Preceptor. In March 1950, Jagdish Kashyap took Bhante to Kalimpong and left him there.

Only in London has Bhante lived as long as he has lived in Kalimpong; 14 years – 1950 - 1964. No other place recurs so frequently in Bhante’s lectures seminars or literary work. Here Bhante wrote A Survey of Buddhism, The Eternal Legacy, The Three Jewels, The Rainbow Road, and The Religion of Art together with numerous essays and articles on Buddhism. More poetry burst forth from Bhante here than at any other place. Kalimpong is also unique in that here Bhante met with all of his eight main teachers. In Kalimpong Bhante received his Bodhisattva Ordination, and all of his tantric initiations took place in Kalimpong or Darjeeling. In Kalimpong Bhante was given the name Urgyen and discovered a connection the ancient Nyingma tradition. It was in Kalimpong that Bhante started Teaching, and it was also in Kalimpong, in 1967, that Bhante made the decision to start a new Buddhist Movement; the FWBO.

Said to be a place of great auspiciousness blessed by Guru Rinpoche; journey to the Sikkimese Hiddenland and discover your Tantric roots. Explore holy mountains, sacred lakes, dakini caves, temples, shrines, schools, stupas, and hermitages associated with Urgyen Sangharakshita and his eight main teachers in Ghoom, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and the wilds of Sikkim.

Parayana - The Way Beyond

When we started the Pilgrimage service in 2001, our aim was to create resources for men and women Sramanas – renunciants practicing in simplicity. Still dedicated to Sramanas, Parayana has unexpectedly become an important part of new initiatives taking our Movement into the Buddhist Heartland – the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Pilgrimage has become another sparkling facet of our Movement. We enable pilgrims to enter the spirit and path of pilgrimage, to gain experiences of India, of the holy places, and of the Refuges that would scarcely otherwise be imaginable. Parayana provides employment, community, and skills training for our team members, and brings the East and West of our Movement together.

Parayana Main
Visit the Parayana page to learn more about us.