a brief history
Mahasiddha Kadampa Buddhist Centre came about through the sincere request from a private individual from Ramsgate (KZN Southcoast) in 1999, to Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche (who is a fully accomplished meditation master and internationally renowned teacher and author of Buddhism, residing in England), to send a Buddhist Teacher to Durban.
Then, in August 2000, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso asked one of his close disciples, Gen Kelsang Sangdak, to move from England to Durban and start a Kadampa Buddhist Centre there to help bring peace and harmony to the area and benefit the local people.
Mahasiddha Kadampa Buddhist Centre was then formally established and registered as NPO (014-445NPO) on 7th August 2001. It is the first residential Buddhist Centre ever in Durban, with its own qualified and permanent Resident Teacher, a Buddhist monk.
The Centre first started up in Kloof, and since May 2004 it is situated in Malvern (suburb of Queensburgh). Here we offer three regular and continuous study programmes and hence this is a Centre of spiritual study (learning) and practice, open for everyone. In the meantime the Centre has produced many qualified Dharma students and teachers through its study programmes. Over the years it opened many branches and groups throughout Durban and KZN, and also in the Western and Eastern Cape.
In 2007 our Cape Town branch, due to the heart-felt request of the local students to Venerable Geshe-la, became the Tushita Buddhist Centre, with its own Resident Teacher, Buddhist monk Gen Kelsang Pagpa. In May 2009, our Hillcrest (KZN) branch became the Maitreya Buddhist Centre, with Buddhist monk Kelsang Phuntsog as its Resident Teacher.