About The Chairman

Most Ven Dr. Dhammapiya Maha Thero

Ven Dr. Dhammapiya (Thaiu Mog, Public name before Monk life) was born on 15th June, 1971 in rural India. Being religiously minded from an early age, Ven. Dr. Dhammapiya was ordained as a Buddhist monk on 6th December, 1989. In 1995, he graduated with honors from Wilson College of Bombay, securing a Bachelors of Arts in Philosophy degree. In 1997, Ven. Dr. Dhammapiya earned his Masters of Arts in Philosophy from University of Hyderabad and went on to get his Ph.D from Bombay University in 2001. Ven. Dr. Dhammapiya has had the privilege of visiting and touring Buddhist institutions in a number of countries, including Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Japan and other countries of South Eastern Asia. After returning to his native land, Ven. Dr. Dhammapiya was asked by the community to make contributions of his time and knowledge to improving the disadvantaged tribal villages of Tripura. The government of Tripura has also recruited him as an Assistant Professor and principal of the public college at Sabroom, South Tripura.

Venerable Dr. Dhammapiya, the founder and chairman of the Bahujana Hitaya Educational Trust & Dhamma Dipa Foundation is a visionary who was born in the remote village of Suknachari beside the Feni River, a hilly region covered by forests in South Tripura. It is his Trust, which helped to establish the Dhamma Dipa School (DDS), a C.B.S.E. affiliated, residential school in 2002 and Dhamma Dipa International Buddhist Academy (DDIBA) for novices and monks in 2007 at Manu Bankul, Sabroom, South Tripura, India. Dhamma Dipa School was established keeping in view to provide value based quality education for the children of the area, deprived because of poverty and isolation. Today the school serves to 710 students from KG-I to Class XII, of which 160 students/novices are from the purely Buddhist monastic school, Dhamma Dipa International Buddhist Academy.

It was not at all easy for the Trust to establish the schools and the main structure of Dhamma Dipa International Buddhist Academy (DDIBA) was spared, burning the three residential Viharas within, on the 24th of June, 2008, an action by some unknown miscreants. There is hardly any support to build the basic infrastructure within the schools and hence the period of development has been spread through a long period. DDIBA is the only of its kind of Buddhist institute of Northeast India, which provides the novices with indepth knowledge of Buddhism, art and culture, along with the education in regular subjects. Both DDS and DDIBA needs financial and voluntary resources to continue to run the institutes and develop the institutes into centres of excellence to provide quality education to the students in this remote part of India, as well as to students from neighbouring Bangladesh.

The Founder and Chairman of the Bahujana Hitaya Educational Trust & Dhamma Dipa Foundation, Venerable Dr. Dhammapiya wants to take forward the institutions of DDS and DDIBA with the vision where, “Compassion is the Religion, Truth is the Faith and Service is the Way of Life”. Keeping in view the natural environment of Northeast, he is working towards a model, where the students understand and practice the conservation of nature by creating community forests, preserving sources of pure water, promoting organic agriculture and leading simple lifestyles for sustainability.

Ven Dr. Dammapiya is the Secretary General of International Buddhist Confederation (IBC) and is also the Secretary General of the North East India Buddhist Sangha Council. Apart from holding these prestigious posts he is also the Assoc. professor and Principal, MMD College, Tripura. He has also actively participated representing India in many national and International Seminars, Conferences and workshops, symposiums in India and abroad since 1994.