Dhamma Giri

Dhamma Giri ('Hill of Dhamma'), the Vipassana International Academy, is on a hill at Igatpuri, a railway town on the Mumbai-Nashik line about 136 km from Mumbai and a 10 to 15 minute walk from Igatpuri station. It held its first course in October 1976 and is one of the world's largest Vipassana centres; dhamma.org says tens of thousands of students study there every year. Its golden Myanmar-style pagoda, begun in 1978 and later enlarged around the original, has 350 cells according to the academy and over 400 according to dhamma.org, and the academy describes seven meditation halls and about 600 students on each 10-day course. The Vipassana Research Institute, the long-course centres Dhamma Tapovana 1 and 2 and the Sayagyi U Ba Khin Village share the site, entered through the Myanmar Gate built in 2004. Applications are accepted online only, and only confirmed students and servers may enter the centre.

How to apply

Apply online through the centre's page on dhamma.org (in Nepal, start from np.dhamma.org). New students must first complete a 10-day course, and there is no charge.

What is taught here

Donation-funded 10-day courses taught with S. N. Goenka's recorded instructions, in the line of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, at centres in Nepal and worldwide. Read about Goenka (U Ba Khin).