A Dhamma Journey for Ugandan

August 17, 2010

Author: Marjorie Chew

Source: The Buddhist Channel/The Star

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=71,9443,0,0,1,0

In June 1990, Steven Kaboggoza, then 24, left Uganda to study in a university in India. His family and kin expected him to return as “a rich businessman with a briefcase”.

After seven years of travelling, Kaboggoza returned home as a Buddhist yogi with a shaven head and a backpack. His family was puzzled by his odd baggage: scuba diving gear and books on Buddhism.

“In Uganda, there was no Buddhist temple or even a single Buddhist teacher and certainly there is no sea in which to dive,” writes Kaboggoza who now goes by the name, Buddharakkhita, in his first book, Planting Dhamma Seeds: The Emergence Of Buddhism In Africa. He also wrote another book, Drop By Drop: Practising Dhamma In Daily Life.

Bhante Buddharakkhita’s strange baggage had something to do with his life-changing experiences