Jungto Society, the international Buddhist community founded by the revered Korean Dharma master and social activist Venerable Pomnyun Sunim (법륜스님), recently conducted its 33rd annual pilgrimage across India and to Nepal. Held under the theme “Following in the Footsteps of the Buddha,” the pilgrimage, which ran from 19 January to 2 February, was attended by more 500 practitioners.1
This year’s pilgrimage was particularly notable for two reasons: first was the participation, for the first time in the Jungto pilgrimage’s 33-year history, of non-Korean practitioners: the 500-plus Korean Buddhist pilgrims were accompanied nine practitioners from Italy, Japan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam. Second, the pilgrimage also coincided with celebrations for the 30th anniversary of Sujata Academy, a remarkable community school and social empowerment project established by Ven. Pomnyun Sunim in Dungeshwari, in the northeastern Indian state of Bihar. This project has transformed the lives of an entire community of people who have faced systemic social and economic exclusion as a result of India’s conservative Hindu caste hierarchy.2
The academy is named after Sujata, the young woman who is said to have nourished the ailing and emaciated Siddhartha Gautama with a bowl of milk-rice, thus ending his six years of extreme asceticism. Tuition at the academy is provided free of charge. The school’s principal goal is to educate every student in basic literacy and numeracy. Classes are taught from kindergarten to secondary level, alongside adult literacy classes and skills training. Students who wish to continue beyond elementary education and attend secondary school are required to teach kindergarteners or to help out in the onsite Jivaka Hospital in the mornings and to attend classes in the afternoon, working in the spirit of giving back to the community. The campus also includes a warehouse, a dormitory, a large playing field, and sports equipment for the children.
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Ven. Pomnyun Sunim established the international Buddhist humanitarian relief organization Join Together Society (JTS) as an expression of the compassion of engaged Buddhism and the belief that helping others is the best way to enrich one’s own life. Headquartered in Seoul, JTS operates four branch offices in South Korea and the United States, along with field offices in India and the Philippines. JTS Korea and JTS America oversee fundraising, while JTS India and JTS Philippines conduct development projects in cooperation with local communities. The relief organization has also earned Special Consultative Status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
JTS India began its work in Dungeshwari, some 12 kilometers northeast of the Buddhist pilgrimage hub of Bodh Gaya, in the early 1990s, aspiring to fulfill the mission: “The hungry should eat; the sick should be treated; children should be educated in time.”
This region is surrounded by the Pragbodhi Hills where the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, is said to have spent six years in a cave as an ascetic. And it’s here that JTS India has been working to empower the villagers of Dungeshwari to live their lives free from hunger, illiteracy, and disease.
The people of Dungeshwari are primarily Dalits, who face systemic social and economic exclusion as a result of the conservative Hindu social hierarchy. “Dalit,” which translates as “broken” in Sanskrit, is a term for the very lowest castes, whom members of the so-called “higher” castes still to this day deem “untouchable,” despite the practice being prohibited in the Constitution of India. By working directly with disadvantaged communities, JTS aims to help them to mobilize their own capabilities and resources to create a more prosperous and sustainable future.
Jungto Society Dharma teacher Doyeon Jang (Dharma name Bogwang), is the director of Sujata Academy. She has overseen the development of this ambitious project, facing numerous challenges, both personal and structural, in the process of bringing this expression of compassion and social transformation to fruition.
▶️ Published by BDG on March 8, 2024
▶️ Read more: https://www.buddhistdoor.net/features/the-sujata-academy-project-the-power-of-hope-and-compassion-in-india/