Established 2026 · Stockport · United Kingdom

The Ambedkarite Times

Educate · Agitate · Organise

Vol I · No 1 · May 2026EN edition2 May 2026

This edition

Buddha Purnima — A Festival of Light at Stockport

On the full moon of Vesākha — the night the Buddha was born, attained enlightenment, and entered Mahāparinirvāṇa — the sangha gathers in Greater Manchester to remember, to meditate, and to renew our vow to Babasaheb's path.

EDITORIAL · BUDDHA PURNIMA 1 min read

May the lamp of Dhamma burn bright in every home

From Bodh Gayā to Stockport, Buddhists across the world will light a single candle on the full moon of May. We invite every member of our society — young and old, in person and online — to do the same, and to remember why.

By The Editorial Committee

Two thousand five hundred years ago, beneath a Bodhi tree in northern India, a young prince named Siddhārtha Gautama opened his eyes at dawn and saw with perfect clarity the cause of human suffering and the path that ends it. On that same full-moon night he had been born; on that same full-moon night, many decades later, he would lay down his body and pass beyond. Buddhists call this triple anniversary Buddha Purnima, or Vesākha — and it is the holiest day in our calendar.

But for an Ambedkarite Buddhist in Britain, the day carries a second weight. On 14 October 1956, in Nagpur, Babasaheb Dr. B. R. Ambedkar took the Three Refuges and the Five Precepts and led nearly half a million Dalit men, women and children into the Dhamma in a single afternoon. He chose the Buddha not by accident, but because he had read every great teacher of the world and concluded that no other path so unflinchingly demanded reason, compassion, and equality, in that order.

This Purnima we light a lamp, yes — but we also recommit. To educate. To agitate. To organise. To live each day as if the Buddha and Babasaheb were watching, because in some sense they always are.

The full programme is on the next page. Whether you will join us in the hall in Stockport, or sit at your own shrine in Birmingham or Brent or Bradford, we send you our deepest mettā. Sabbe sattā sukhitā hontu — may all beings be happy.

PROGRAMME 1 min read

How we will mark the day — Saturday 23 May 2026

Doors open at 9.30 am. Bring a flower for the shrine.

By Compiled by the Events Sub-Committee

The day begins at 10.00 am with the chanting of the Tisarana — the Three Refuges — in Pāli and English, led by visiting bhikkhus from the Ambedkar Vihāra, Nagpur. We will read the opening lines of the Dhammapada and offer lotus flowers at the shrine of the Buddha and the portrait of Babasaheb.

From 11.30 there is a guided Mettā Bhāvanā meditation — twenty minutes of loving-kindness for ourselves, for our families, for the strangers around us, for those we find difficult, and at last for every being in the ten directions. New meditators are warmly welcomed; cushions provided.

Lunch is shared — a community potluck of vegetarian food. Please bring a dish to share if you are able; we will feed everyone regardless. The afternoon brings a reading of selected passages from The Buddha and His Dhamma, followed by an open conversation on the question: what would Babasaheb ask of us, here, in 2026?

We close at 5.00 pm with the lighting of one hundred and one lamps, the Sharaṇāgamana chant, and the words Babasaheb himself spoke in 1956: 'I will not take the name of God or any other deity. I will believe in the equality of all human beings.'

REFLECTION 1 min read

Why a Dalit-Buddhist Vesākha looks a little different

We do not separate the personal liberation of the Buddha from the social liberation of Babasaheb. Both, or neither.

By Dr. Meena Pawar, Birmingham

When my grandmother first lit a lamp on Buddha Purnima in 1957 — one year after the Nagpur conversion — she did so in a one-room house in Nashik. She did not own the land it stood on. She had been told, all her life, that she was untouchable. That word, she said, broke her more deeply than hunger ever did. The Buddha gave her back her dignity. Babasaheb gave her the legal and intellectual instruments to defend it.

Seventy years later, my own daughter celebrates Vesākha in Solihull — her school marks Buddhist Holy Day on the calendar; her teacher asks her to tell the class what the day means. She says: 'It is the day a man saw that all suffering comes from clinging, and the day, much later, that another man taught my great-grandmother she was not less than anyone.' She is nine years old.

This is the inheritance we are protecting. This is why the candle matters.

DHAMMA · PRACTICE 1 min read

A simple Buddha Purnima practice for the home shrine

Five minutes is enough. Quiet is more important than incense.

By Bhante Sumitta, visiting teacher

Place a small image of the Buddha — or simply a clean white cloth — on a low table. Light one candle. Sit comfortably and close your eyes.

Say, silently or aloud, the Three Refuges: I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dhamma, I take refuge in the Sangha. Repeat each line three times. Notice the breath flowing in and out at the tip of the nose.

Now bring to mind one person you love, and silently wish them: may you be happy, may you be safe, may you be free from suffering. Then a stranger. Then someone you find difficult. Then yourself.

Open your eyes. Bow once. Blow out the candle. The day begins.

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