About Global Vipassana Pagoda
Religious
The Global Vipassana Pagoda is a Meditation Dome Hall with a capacity to seat around 8,000 Vipassana meditators near Gorai, North-west of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The Pagoda was inaugurated by Pratibha Patil, then President of India on 8 February 2009. It is built on donated land on a peninsula between Gorai creek and the Arabian Sea. The pagoda is to serve as a monument of peace and harmony. The Global Vipassana Pagoda has been built out of gratitude to Sayagyi U Ba Khin, Vipassana teacher and the first Accountant-General of Independent Burma, who was instrumental in Vipassana returning to India, the country of its origin.
Built entirely through voluntary donations, the purpose of the Global Vipassana Pagoda is to: 1) share information about Vipassana, and 2) spread information on Gotama the Buddha and his teachings. Vipassana is the practical quintessence of the universal, non-sectarian teachings of the Buddha.
Its traditional Burmese design is an expression of gratitude towards the country of Myanmar for preserving the practice of Vipassana. The shape of the pagoda is a copy of the Shwedagon Pagoda (Golden Pagoda) in Yangon, Myanmar. It was built combining ancient Indian and modern technology to enable it to last for a thousand years.
The center of the Global Vipassana Pagoda contains the world's largest stone dome built without any supporting pillars.
The inside of the pagoda is hollow and serves as a very large meditation hall with an area covering more than 6000 m2