Vajra Vidya Institute (Vajra Vidya Sansthan)

Tucked just behind the Deer Park at Sarnath — the woodland grove where the Buddha turned the Wheel of Dharma some 2,500 years ago — the Vajra Vidya Institute (Vajra Vidya Sansthan) is one of the quietest and most rewarding stops on the Sarnath circuit.

• Established in the autumn of 1999 by the Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, it is a monastic college, or shedra, dedicated to preserving the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.
• Its resident monks work through a rigorous seven-year curriculum of Buddhist philosophy, logic, debate, grammar and poetry, and on most afternoons you may catch the rhythmic clap-and-question of formal debate practice drifting across the courtyard.
• It is a living seat of learning first and a visitor attraction second, and that distinction gives the campus its unhurried, studious calm.
• Architecturally the institute is a small marvel.
• The main temple was conceived to echo the great vanished Nalanda monastery of ancient India, blended with the forms of the Samye, Zhalu Serkhang and Karme Yenmoche monasteries of Tibet.
• Visitors pass through a gate designed as a Chakrasamvara mandala and are greeted by a bas-relief of the Four Great Kings, the guardians of the directions.
• Inside the main shrine hall a large gilded Shakyamuni Buddha sits in the teaching mudra, flanked by the thirty-five Confession Buddhas, while a thousand smaller Buddha figures line niches along the upper balcony.
• The walls carry richly coloured murals of the lives of the Sixteen Arhats, and the ceiling is painted with mandalas; upstairs are smaller shrine rooms to the Twenty-One Taras and the lineage protectors.
• The foundation stone had been laid back in 1993, and the finished institute was inaugurated in 1999 by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the senior lamas of the Kagyu order, and later consecrated by His Holiness the Karmapa.
• Note that this is a distinct establishment from the government-run Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies and from the Gelugpa Lhaden Che monastery nearby.
• Because the setting is meditative rather than commercial, dress modestly, keep your voice low, remove shoes before entering the shrine hall, walk clockwise around the images, and always ask before photographing monks or the interior.
• Entry is free; a small donation towards the upkeep of the shedra is welcomed but never demanded.
• For vegetarian travellers the whole of Sarnath is a comfortable place to eat, as the town's Buddhist-pilgrim character keeps most eateries pure-vegetarian.
• The Vajra Vidya campus itself has a simple café and guesthouse serving light vegetarian fare, and the satvik pilgrim thali houses strung along Sarnath's Ashok Marg dish up honest, freshly cooked vegetable thalis, dal, rice and rotis a short walk away.
• For a fuller Banarasi spread you will need to head back towards the old city, roughly 9–10 km south, where long-trusted pure-veg names such as Kashi Chat Bhandar and Ksheer Sagar await.
• A gentle caution common to all of Varanasi: the famous thandai and lassi shops sometimes offer a bhang (cannabis) version, so always ask specifically for a plain lassi or plain thandai.