, popularly known as Sasai, is a Japanese-born Indian Buddhist monk who later chose India as his home. He is the president of the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Memorial committee Deekshabhoomi.

Early years

Surai Sasai was born in

Niimi is a city located in northwestern Okayama Prefecture, Japan. As of March 31, 2017, the city has an estimated population of 30,583 (14,628 males, 15,955 females), with 12,857 households and a population density of 39 persons per km2. The total a ...

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,906,464 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefectur ...

, with the

lay name A legal name is the name that identifies a person for legal, administrative and other official purposes. A person's legal birth name generally is the name of the person that was given for the purpose of registration of the birth and which then ap ...

Minoru Sasai on 30 August 1935. He took tonsure as a novice monk at the age of 14 and was given the ordination name Tenjit Surai, "Light of the Sun, beautiful Mountain Peak", by his

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Lotus School (天台法華宗 ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just "''hokke shū''") is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (with significant esoteric elements) officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese m ...

teacher Shujuma Yamamoto. In 1955 he joined the monastic order of the Shingon school and in 1966 he travelled to Thailand to study

vipassana ''Samatha'' (Pāli; sa, शमथ ''śamatha''; ), "calm," "serenity," "tranquillity of awareness," and ''vipassanā'' (Pāli; Sanskrit ''vipaśyanā''), literally "special, super (''vi-''), seeing (''-passanā'')", are two qualities of the ...

Spreading Buddhism in India

Sasai came to India in 1966 and met Nichidatsu Fujii, whom he helped with the building of a

peace pagoda A Peace Pagoda is a Buddhist stupa; a monument to inspire peace, designed to provide a focus for people of all races and creeds, and to help unite them in their search for world peace. Most, though not all, peace pagodas built since World War II ...

at Rajgir. He fell out with Fuji, however, but he related that on his return journey he was stopped by a vision of a figure resembling

Nagarjuna Nāgārjuna . 150 – c. 250 CE (disputed)was an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, scholar-saint and philosopher. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.Garfield, Jay L. (1995), ''The Fundamental Wisdom of ...

who said, "Go to Nagpur". In

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...

, he met Wamanrao Godbole, the person who had organized the conversion ceremony for

B. R. Ambedkar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who headed the committee drafting the Constitution of India from the Constituent Assembly debates, served a ...

in 1956. Sasai claims that when he saw a photograph of B. R. Ambedkar at Godbole's home, he realized that Ambedkar had appeared in his dream. At first, Nagpur residents considered Surai Sasai very strange, but he became popular after he began to greet them with "

Jai Bhim Jai Bhim (alternatively spelled Jay Bhim or Jai Bheem; ) is a slogan and greeting used by followers of B. R. Ambedkar, an Indian scholar, social reformer and the chief architect of the Constitution of India. It refers to Ambedkar's given name ...

" (victory to Ambedkar) and to build viharas. In 1987, Sasai was arrested for overstaying his visum but his followers protested against his planned deportation. A court case to deport him was dismissed and he was granted Indian citizenship, which cost him his Japanese citizenship. Sasai is one of the main leaders of the campaign to free the Mahabodhi Temple at

Bodh Gaya Bodh Gaya is a religious site and place of pilgrimage associated with the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Gaya district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is famous as it is the place where Gautama Buddha is said to have attained Enlightenment ( pi, ...

from Hindu control. As the president of the Bodhisatva Nagarjun Smarak Samstha Va Anusandhan Kendra he supported the excavations at Mansar. Sasai represented the Buddhists as a member of the

National Commission for Minorities The Union Government set up the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. Six religious communities, viz; Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains have been no ...

from 2003-2006. Arya Bhadant Surai Sasai is the president of the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Smarak Samiti Deekshabhoomi (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Memorial committee Deekshabhoomi), Nagpur.

Disciples

Sasai has hundreds of thousands of lay followers and hundreds of ordained monk and novice disciples. His most active disciples are Bhante Bodhi Dhamma (Dhammaji), Prajnasheela Bhikkhu, Ken Bodhi, and Bhikkhu Abhaya Putra. The first and last were trained as

Theravada ''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...

monk and the others as

Mahayana ''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing bra ...

monks. Bodhi Dhamma works in South India teaching Zen while Prajnasheela works in central India. Abhaya Putra is the founder of Metta India and trains Theravadin monks and novices of Indian origin in Thailand

References

Sources

* * Enoki, Miki (2010). Role and Network of Buddhist Institution in Bijapur, Karnataka ~ Renaissance of Indian Buddhism, in
Voices for Equity Minority and Majority in South Asia
RINDAS International Symposium Series 1, The Center for the Study of Contemporary India, Ryukoku University , pp. 28–44 * *Joshi, Jagadpati; Sharma, A.K. (2005)
Mansar Excavations 1998-2004: The Discovery of Pravarapur
Puramanthana 3, 1-26 *Karlsson, Hans (August 12, 2015)
Surai Sasai: a Buddhist monk battling the caste dragon
The Japan Times * Kinnard, Jacob N. (2014)
Places in Motion: The Fluid Identities of Temples, Images, and Pilgrims
Oxford University Press, p. 138 * Knopf, Rainer (2000)
Bodh-Gaya: Ein internationales Zentrum des Buddhismus in nicht-buddhistischer Umgebung
Internationales Asienforum 31 (3-4), 289-314 * METTA (12 May 2012)
Meditation Education Training Treatment Academy Organization
Retrieved 2 February 2014, from Meditation Education Training Treatment Academy Organization * National Commission for Minorities

(2003-2006) * Quadir, Abdul (July 28, 2013)
Mahabodhi temple serial blasts: NIA in a fix over Sasai's quizzing
Times of India

External links

Photos by Christina Sjögren
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sasai, Surai 1935 births Indian Buddhist monks Indian people of Japanese descent Japanese Buddhist clergy Japanese expatriates in Thailand Living people People from Okayama Prefecture Naturalised citizens of India Japanese emigrants to India 20th-century Indian monks Shingon Buddhist monks