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“The Holy Stupas have acted as an immovable servant in the service of Buddha Dhamma to bring peace.”

                                                                                                                                 – Sidhartha, The Buddhist Forum

Introduction

A religion is defined by its philosophy, ethical rituals and its history. The history carries the true legacy of a religion in form deities, traditions, scriptures, sacred monuments and spiritual places. These sacred monuments and spiritual places contain the positive vibrations to guide mankind to walk on the path of ethics. When these monuments start losing their existence then a religion also starts losing its history and one day in future it could be judged as a myth.

Sacred stupas were the ancient spiritual structures built in India which were regarded as symbols of Buddha, after His Mahaparinirvana 2500 years ago these stupas were built initially in form of hemispherical dome by placing the relics of Buddha in them. Monks used to meditate, circumambulate (Parikarma) and worship these stupas as they were personified as Buddha Himself. Later with the passage of time the stupas were built throughout Asia wherever the enlightening teachings of Buddha were preached.

Why a sign campaign is needed?

It was with the transformational efforts of king Ashoka who strengthened and spread Buddha’s teachings by building a large number of Stupas, monasteries and art works. King Ashoka took special care that stupas should be built at the places which Buddha had visited during His life time. After Ashoka different dynastic rulers gave different designs to these stupas in their respective regimes and propagated the teachings of Buddha.

Later with the passage of time these stupas suffered severe atrocities from the natural calamities and different dynastic rulers in which countless stupas lost their existence. Today if we look back into past it is the existence of these stupas which has saved Buddha’s teaching from being lost in time. Nearly after 2500 years of passing of Buddha we are left only with a handful of stupas in India which are in a neglected and miserable condition. In order to keep the existence of these monuments in future this international sign campaign “Save Stupas Save Buddha” is being launched. At present if we don’t preserve them we shall be neglecting our cultural heritage and hallmark of Great Master.

Objectives

In past several organizations and individuals were shocked on seeing the isolated and wretched condition of the stupas. They constantly appealed to the concerned authorities in India to take suitable and effective steps to protect these valuable sites and their relics. After observing the non-cooperative attitude from their side there was a need to seek support and intervention from international community as no considerable work had been done by authorities. This international sign campaign is being launched with two major objectives:

1.    To preserve and create awareness among the people about the ancient Buddhist stupas and monuments in India in neglected condition.

2.    To form an international body, which will collaborate with the Government of Asian countries for promotion, preservation and research of ancient Buddhist sites and monuments throughout Asia

Nature of this Sign Campaign
”Save Stupas save Buddha” is a sign campaign which is  non-religious, non- political and non-sectarian in attitude. This campaign will initiate the people around the world from different nationalities, cultures, religions and sects to bring the Asian countries on common platform of peace , cultural union and economic development.  

Current status of this international sign campaign
The first phase of this sign campaign was launched in March 12, 2009 from Chaneti stupa, Yamunanagar, Haryana, India with the blessings of Ven. Lama Chosphel Zotpa. On December 30, 2009 the Buddhist Forum submitted 21,000 signatures of participant from different parts of India and world to Honorable President of India Smt. Pratibha Devi Singh Patil with above objectives.
                                                                                              
Alarming Condition of Buddhist monuments in India
In order to justify our cause of campaign we have selected monuments from various states of India. It was observed that the deteriorating conditions of Buddhist monuments are similar and uniform throughout India.