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One of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions is a wish to inspire the building of 1,000 statues of Maitreya Buddha around the world, in places where they can benefit beings for centuries to come. Below is a look at the statues completed, and those still in progress, in fulfillment of this vision.
Maitreya Buddha Project, Kushinagar, India
At the heart of this Vast Vision is the Maitreya Buddha Project in Kushinagar, India, overseen by the Maitreya Project Trust and originated around 1999. The site sits beside two of Buddhism’s most sacred places: the Parinirvana Temple, where Shakyamuni Buddha passed into parinirvana, and the Ramabhar Stupa.
Why Buddha Maitreya, and Why Kushinagar?
The Maitreya Project began with the inspiration of its founder, Lama Thubten Yeshe, following his first return to Tibet in the early 1980s. In the Buddhist pantheon, Shakyamuni Buddha is considered the fourth of 1,000 Buddhas who will manifest on earth, each initiating a new cycle of spiritual teachings. Maitreya Buddha is predicted to be the fifth — and ancient textual tradition holds that Kushinagar is where he will appear.
Building large statues of Maitreya has long been considered auspicious: a way of shortening the period of “spiritual darkness” between the fading of Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings and the coming of Maitreya Buddha, whose teachings will once again open the path to spiritual development for beings of that future time.
Read Who is Maitreya Buddha by Lama Yeshe.
Lama Yeshe, Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa, Pomaia, Italy, 1983. Photo by Merry Colony, courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.
A Vision That Serves the Living, Not Just the Statue
The statue itself is not the point — it is a doorway. The deeper purpose of the project is to bring as much benefit as possible, for as long as possible: spiritually, by giving people the chance to establish a connection with the future Maitreya Buddha simply by visiting, venerating, or even learning about the project; and practically, through education, health care, and the jobs the project creates, both directly and indirectly.
The Maitreya Buddha Project is envisioned as a source of lasting good for the whole region — offering education rooted in compassion and inner values, and social services including a mobile clinic network that will, in time, grow into a hospital. Already, the project has distributed thick blankets to more than 100 people at risk in the area, provided mosquito nets, and sponsored a mobile medical clinic.
During the winter 2014 months, Maitreya Buddha Kunshinagar Project distributed thick blankets to various institutions, including orphanages, India, 2014. Photo courtesy of Maitreya Buddha Kushinagar Project.
From Vision to Ground: The Project’s Early Milestones
In December 2013, the Uttar Pradesh state government formally handed over the land for the project. A stone-laying ceremony marked the occasion, drawing Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the state’s Chief Minister, and over 100,000 farmers, local residents, Sangha, and dignitaries — a remarkable gathering that Mandala magazine documented, alongside Rinpoche’s speech at the ceremony. Rinpoche also wrote to students shortly afterward, laying out the steps ahead.
In the years since, the project’s artistic and engineering designs have been completed. In 2016, the Maitreya Project Trust and the Uttar Pradesh government signed a formal land agreement, and a fence was raised around the site. A feng shui evaluation was later folded into the project’s master plan, and a ground-breaking ceremony was performed by senior geshes and members of the Sangha.
After years of complexity involving fragmented land, the project now centers on a unified, contiguous three-acre site — and with it, renewed momentum. A new partnership with the International Buddhist Confederation, supported by His Eminence Ling Rinpoche, is helping carry the vision forward.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche during his speech during the stone laying ceremony on December 13, 2013. Photo by Andy Melnic.
Maitreya Statue, Bodhgaya
A Gift of Land, a Gift of Vision
A second statue is being built in Bodhgaya — the very place where Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment — developed in close collaboration with the Dalai Lama Trust. The project stands on land that Lama Zopa Rinpoche himself offered to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in 2020.
Statues Already Offered Around the World
Two 24-Foot Maitreya Statues
The Maitreya Project has completed two magnificent 24-foot Maitreya statues: one at Land of Medicine Buddha in California, and one in Bodhgaya, India, as lasting sources of blessing for all who visit.
Nearly 100 Life-Size Statues, Offered With Devotion
Beyond these larger works, almost 100 life-size Maitreya statues have been created around the world. Of these, Lama Zopa Rinpoche personally sponsored and offered 26 statues to FPMT centers across the globe — a direct expression of his wish that as many beings as possible have the opportunity to connect with Maitreya Buddha.
In Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Own Words
In February 2014, Rinpoche wrote a letter describing how this vision first arose, the purpose behind each Maitreya project, and the profound benefits these statues bring to the world — a rare window into the heart behind this decades-long undertaking.
Maitreya Buddha is the embodiment of each buddha’s loving kindness, and the symbol of all the bodhisattvas’ loving kindness for all sentient beings.
—Lama Zopa Rinpoche
We invite you to see the current count of completed or in progress Maitreya statues around the world in fulfillment of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for the FPMT organization.
Maitreya Projects News & Updates
Two Maitreya Statues, One Vast Vision: Updates from Kushinagar and Bodhgaya
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