In April, Rajan traveled with her family to San Francisco to receive the Unsung Heroes of Compassion award from Wisdom in Action, a California-based nonprofit. HH Dalai Lama was the honored guest at a reception of 500 people who came to pay respect to the 49 awardees.
Rajan
Forrest Fleischman
Our first morning in Sarnath, my travelling companion and I walked into a small cafe next to the Tibetan Institute where our host was studying, and begin conversing with a kind Australian man. He told us that he had come there as a volunteer, to help build a website for the school that the cafe more…
Sarnath Cafe
Sukhdev is Rajan’s husband. He masterminded a lively restaurant, catering to foreign scholars, Indians and Tibetans. This activity is the backbone of their charities, as it lies right next to the school, which in turn is none other than the lower section of their home. Now, Sukhdev’s family is fivefold, in ascending order of height: more…
Vanessa Turner: Dream in Sarnath
In February 2005 Vanessa Turner wrote an article about Buddha’s Smile School for Yoga & Health — Europe’s best selling Yoga magazine. Jane Sill, the Editor of Yoga & Health kindly agreed to send us the article so we could make it available for download here. Here is a excerpt: Dream in Sarnath: Buddha’s Smile more…
Mattia Silvani
My name is Mattia and I have recently spent time teaching Sanskrit at Buddha’s Smile School. Despite my broken Hindi, the small students actually listened to the lessons with interest. The children memorized Sanskrit verses and made an effort to learn the first steps in the language. Rajan is providing a rare opportunity for these more…
Vanessa Turner
Rajan, 35, originally came from Calcutta. As a young child, she had always been very sensitive to the suffering around her, so much so that she used to wake up before her mother did and prepare food and clothes to give to the beggars in her area. Rajan’s gentleness and love is what won the more…