By early 1975 some initial tree-planting had already begun at Dhamma Giri. The level two-hectare property to the west that Goenkaji called the Shanti Pathar (Plateau of Peace) had recently been purchased and a few trees had been planted there too. Slowly touches of green were becoming evident throughout the centre.
But Guruji wanted bodhi trees to be planted. He specifically wanted saplings started from seeds or cuttings from four sources: the Mahabodhi Tree (Ficus religiosa) at Bodh Gaya, a direct descendant of the original tree under which the Buddha had attained enlightenment; the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi at Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, brought there as a cutting from the Bodh Gaya tree by the Buddhist nun Sanghamitta Mahatheri, the eldest daughter of Indian Emperor Ashoka; and the Ananda Bodhi at Shravasti, so called because it grew from a seed from the original Bodh Gaya tree that was planted at the Jetavana monastery under the supervision of the Venerable Ananda. Guruji also asked Sayama, his Dhamma sister, to send a young bodhi tree from Sayagyi U Ba Khin's International Meditation Centre in Yangon.
After making inquiries, Goenkaji sent requests to Mahabodhi Society representatives in Bodh Gaya and Sarnath, who agreed to supply the Mahabodhi and Anuradhapura saplings respectively. A senior monk in Shravasti was happy to offer another from the Ananda tree.
In the second week of June, Guruji arrived by car at Dhamma Giri. With him was his American Dhamma brother, Robert Hover, who had been Sayagyi's student since 1961. He had recently completed a seven-day Vipassana course at IMC, then flown to Mumbai with the Burmese sapling. It was his first visit to Dhamma Giri. They stayed only a few hours, left the sapling, and returned to Mumbai so that Mr. Hover could catch his flight back to Yangon for another course.
In early June, Graham Gambie had set out by train to collect the other three saplings, and returned with them in clay pots from Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Shravasti a few days after Guruji had left the centre. Hearing that Graham had arrived, Guruji was soon back, this time with Mataji, and immediately chose a day for planting the four saplings. Pits were dug, filled with loose soil and manure, and watered. Several trustees were invited.
Immediately after breakfast on the appointed day, a small group gathered. With little ado, Guruji and Mataji planted the first bodhi sapling, the one from Bodh Gaya, on the southeast corner of the Shanti Pathar. While planting and watering it, they gave the young shoot abundant metta.
Guruji then asked a few female students—Alka Dasarwar, her mother Ramabai Kulkarni, and Floh Lehmann—to plant the Sri Lankan Anuradhapura sapling from Sarnath on the southwest corner of the Shanti Pathar, to the south of the location that he had already selected for the pagoda.
Some male students, including Graham Gambie, Luke Matthews, Geo Poland and myself then planted the Ananda sapling from Shravasti on the northwest corner of the Shanti Pathar, near the present Dhamma hall #2.
And on the northeast corner near the current female teacher’s residence, the fourth sapling, the one from Burma, was planted by the trustees Sriram Taparia, his younger brother Shyam Sundar, and Goenkaji's cousin Radheshyam Goenka. At each location, Guruji and Mataji stood nearby and continued to give metta during the planting and watering.
The bodhi trees thus anchored the four corners of the site that Guruji had designated for the future pagoda. Two years after the official 1976 opening of Dhamma Giri, in the winter of 1978–'79, construction began on that important new structure. By then the young trees were flourishing.
Narayan Dasarwar