Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page. Funds are being collected here for the India Dhamma Trust via FWBO Dhammaloka. 

The India Dhamma Trust is a new Triratna Buddhist Community charity established specifically to support our movement's Dhamma work in India by raising money and awareness worldwide. The Trust aims to help broaden and deepen Buddhist practice in India – in particular by supporting the ordination teams and the Public Preceptors who work in India – and to help realise the unity of our movement. The costs of setting up the Trust have been generously supported by our Order and movement.

There are 10-20 million new Buddhists in India. Most of these have converted to Buddhism in the last 50 years following the inspiration of Dr. Ambedkar, but many have little knowledge of what Buddhism is or how to practice. Over the last 30 years our movement has developed an intelligent approach to teaching Buddhism which is deeply sensitive to the needs of Indian people. The men’s and women’s ordination teams are at the heart of this approach, providing crucial leadership, guidance and support to the wider Order and movement in India. They are actively engaged in creating positive conditions for the 1600 men and women who are currently training for ordination in India, and for an estimated 7000 mitras, which, in turn, has a hugely beneficial effect on the society around them.

For our Order in India to continue to flourish, it now needs to be financially supported by the wider Order and movement of which it is a part. Most of the Public Preceptors and members of the ordination teams rely on financial support from within the movement to carry out their work. There are currently around twenty of these core Dhamma workers. Karuna has funded most of these workers for many years. However, as the movement develops, these Order members are spending more of their time on purely ordination work, and it is not appropriate for Karuna to fund this work. Karuna starts to withdraw its funding at the end of 2010.

We need to raise £80,000 per year to support the 20 Dharmachari/nis who are working directly to support ordination in India. Their support has not been increased for many years, despite soaring Indian inflation and an unfavourable exchange rate. Please join us in making our vision a reality. Please make a donation, however small (or large!).

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.