The World Peace Ceremony

The Mahabodhi Temple, which marks the site of the Buddha's enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, India, is the holiest site of the Buddhist world. For centuries, pilgrims inspired by that sacred power have journeyed across Asia to make profound prayers and offerings beneath the Bodhi tree. And yet, this holiest site of one of the world’s great religions faded into obscurity and was virtually abandoned for a period of 700 years.

Tibetans have returned to Bodh Gaya as pilgrims on a remarkable scale, starting in 1959 as refugees fleeing the sweeping destruction of their own ancient Buddhist civilization. Tibetan lama Tarthang Tulku was one of those refugee-pilgrims who came seeking blessings and solace at the site exalted in both the texts and collective imagination of Tibet.

In 1959, deeply moved by the stark and unattended state of the temple, Tarthang Tulku made a vow at the Bodhi tree to do whatever he could to revitalize the temple for the sake of all of Buddhist civilization. In 1989, he founded the World Peace Ceremony, an annual ceremony known as the Nyingma Monlam Chenmo, which is held for ten days at the Mahabodhi Temple. Over the last 24 years, it has become one of the most beloved and widely attended events by Tibetans in exile.

Seizing this opportunity to reach the entire range of Tibetan Buddhist communities in exile, Tarthang Tulku and his small community of dedicated students and volunteers at the Yeshe De Project in northern California would work tirelessly to print the vast corpus of Tibet's sacred literature and art. To date, over 3.7 million texts have been given away beneath the Bodhi tree.

Freely distributed at the ceremony beneath the Bodhi tree, this effort has become one of the world's largest on-going efforts to preserve the Tibetan culture. The impact of these preservation efforts over the last twenty-five years has already been broad and deep, but their true flowering will continue to unfold in the decades to come.

As the largest provider of educational books for the Tibetan community-in-exile, the Yeshe De Project has already played a defining role in their education: advancing the literacy of the Tibetan language, supporting a rich and comprehensive education for both monasteries and nunneries, stimulating the growth of scores of new learning institutes in exile, and ensuring the transmission of traditional Tibetan culture from master to disciple, across the generations of Tibetans in exile.