Walking Buddha

Object location: Living room

This Walking Buddha is a model of the 36 foot (11 metre) high statue which is at the heart of Nagaloka, the Triratna Training and Conference Centre in Nagpur, India. Nagaloka has become a major centre for the revival of Buddhism in India. It is also a pilgrimage site for the many thousands of visitors who come annually to see and pay their respects to the famous Walking Buddha. 

The Buddha is more usually represented seated, but during his lifetime, for eight months of the year, he walked the roads of North India, meeting people, talking with them and teaching them the Dharma. So here, in a form favoured by Dr B. R. Ambedkar, the Buddha is represented walking out into the world with his right hand raised in the abhaya or fearlessness mudrā, giving confidence to all those he meets. 

The statue was created by the Taiwanese master sculptor Wen Kwei Chan. This model was given to Sangharakshita by Dharmachari Lokamitra. Born in London, Lokamitra was ordained by Sangharakshita in 1974 and went out to India four years later, since when he has worked with the Buddhist followers of Dr B. R. Ambedkar and others to establish the Triratna Buddhist Order and Community in India, including the founding of the Nagaloka Buddhist Centre.