Vishwa Shanti Stupa


Vishwa Shanti Stupa (1= World Peace Stupa; in Wardha district, Maharashtra, near Gitai Mandir, is a large stupa of white color. Statues of the Buddha are mounted on stupa in four directions. It also has a small Japanese Buddhist temple with a large park. There is a temple near the stupa where prayers are done for universal peace. The initial pagoda reached completion in 1969. New initiatives in 1993 resulted in the present form. It is one of around 80 Peace Pagodas which have been built around the world by the neo-Buddhist organisation Nipponzan Myohoji. These were a dream of Fujii Nichidatsu, inspired by Mohandas K. Gandhi, as a reaction to the atomic bombing of Japan, the first, and more well known Vishwa Shanti stupa, being built on Ratnagiri Hill in Rajgir.