In the late 1980s, an Indian monk named Venerable Anuruddha was teaching local children the alphabet and Buddhist chanting at the Thai Temple in Bodh Gaya. During the annual insight meditation retreats each winter, Christopher Titmuss shared stories and teachings with the children, and the children received small gifts such as fruit and biscuits. When Venerable Anuruddha expressed his wish to hire two teachers who could provide lessons in Hindi, Math, and English for a couple of hours a day, some participants in the annual insight meditation retreat donated funds to hire the teachers.
By January 1990, the money had not been spent, but Ven. Anuruddha from the Thai Temple and Kabir Saxena from the Root Institute had formed a committee with other community leaders to start a school in the local village of Mastipur. There was no school in Mastipur and most people in this village were illiterate.
This committee rented a room in the local Sakya Tibetan Temple beginning on March 1, 1990. They hired 2 local teachers, Preyag Prajapati and Sumitra Devi, paying them very small salaries. Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessed the new school in an opening day ceremony. Twenty-five of the poorest children from the village had been enrolled, but forty children arrived and none were turned away. Over the years the committee developed into a management committee responsible for running the school.
When the pilgrimage season began in the autumn, the school had to leave the Sakya Temple and move to a house in the village. In March 1991, a second class was added and the school moved again, this time to two dormitory rooms in the Root Institute. Our school stayed at the Root Institute until funds were raised to buy a small piece of land where we are presently located.
