Inauguration of Global Vipassana Pagoda in Mumbai

President Pratibha Devisingh Patil has inaugurated the Global Vipassana Pagoda at Gorai in Mumbai on Sunday.
The 325 feet tall pagoda structure has been established by the Global Pagoda Foundation to promote the practice of Vipassana.
Vipasana in the Buddhist tradition means insight into the nature of reality.
The centre of the Global Pagoda boasts of the worlds largest stone dome built without any supporting pillars.
The Pagoda is hollow from inside, and this portion serves as a very large meditation hall for over 8000 people enabling them to practice Vipassana meditation as taught by Acharya Goenka.
Lord Buddhas bone relics have been enshrined in the central locking stone of the dome.
The grand size and the architectural style of the pagoda is aimed at reinforce Indias global image on spiritual tourism map. The tall pagoda building looms majestically over the GVF complex, spread over 13 acres of lush greenery, near picturesque Gorai in northwest Mumbai, barely a kilometre from the Arabian Sea. Pagodas are multi-tiered structures common in China, Japan, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and other countries where Buddhism is followed. At the centre of the pagoda building, the tallest pillar-less dome in the world has been constructed measuring 280-ft in diameter and 90-ft height, flanked by two 60-ft tall pagodas, claimed Vallabh Bhanshali, a GVF trustee. Designed by Indian architect Chandubhai Sompura on the lines of the She Dagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, this pagoda is a hollow structure, having a dome of 280-ft diameter. Below it is a massive 6,000-sq pillar-less meditation hall, which can accommodate 8,000 people at a time, he said. It is more than three times the size of the large masonry structure - the Gol Gumbaz in Bijapur, Karnataka, which is 90 ft in diameter. The pagoda is the outcome of efforts by nearly 700 labourers toiling daily for the past 11 years to make what is billed as the 8th wonder of the world. Combining ancient building principles with modern techniques of construction, Sompura finally guided a structure using the ?interlocking principle of construction? for the huge stones - each weighing around 600-700 kg. The entire structure has consumed over 2.5 million tonne of Jodhpur stone. Mr Bhanshali said though Goenka?s GVF started in Igatpuri, around 120 km away from Mumbai, it has grown into a worldwide phenomenon with independent vipassana meditation centres.