Dipa Ma
1911 CE–1989 CE · Modern · near Chittagong
1911–1989 CE
Dipa Ma (Nani Bala Barua, 1911–1989) was a Bengali Buddhist laywoman who became one of the most accomplished insight (vipassanā) teachers of the 20th century. Born into a Barua Buddhist family near Chittagong (in present-day Bangladesh), she turned to intensive meditation in Burma after the deaths of her husband and children, studying under Anagarika Munindra, and from 1967 taught from her modest home in Calcutta. A widow and householder rather than a nun, she was a powerful example that deep practice is open to ordinary lay life and to women, and she directly shaped Western teachers such as Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and Jack Kornfield. She is well documented.
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near Chittagong
What they did here
DOCUMENTED: born Nani Bala Barua into a Bengali Buddhist Barua family near Chittagong, in the region of present-day Bangladesh.
About near Chittagong
The Chittagong region of southeastern Bangladesh has a long-standing Buddhist (Barua) community. Near Chittagong was the early home of Dipa Ma (Nani Bala Barua), the laywoman who, after training in Burma, became a renowned teacher of insight meditation and an influential figure for the Western vipassanā movement.
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Dipa Ma’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
Balangoda Ananda Maitreya, Webu Sayadaw, Sayagyi U Ba Khin, Mahasi Sayadaw, Walpola Rahula
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Dipa Ma’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Jewish world
Christian world
Hindu world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.