Uberoi Teacher Training in India (UTTI)
July 6 - 29, 2022
UTTI 2022
UTTI begins with arrival to India’s capital, New Delhi, on the evening of Wednesday, July 6, 2022 (or the wee hours of the morning of July 7). On Thursday, July 7, participants may rest and acclimate to the change in time zone, or they may take an optional one-day trip arranged by UTTI to the Taj Mahal for a cost of $100.
While in Delhi, participants will stay on the campus of Chhoti Dada Bari, a Jain temple. After three days of rest, acclimation, basic orientation, and a city tour in Delhi including the Gandhi Museum, participants will travel by train to Amritsar, Punjab, the site of the Golden Temple, to examine Sikhism.
They will stay on the campus and receive instruction from professors of Guru Nanak Dev University. From there, the participants will fly near to the city of Sarnath where the Buddha delivered his first sermon. Participants will visit the famous Stupa, the museums, and temples that represent Buddhism in its Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana forms, while staying at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies. Thereafter, the participants will travel by bus to the ancient city of Varanasi/Banaras/Kashi, the city of lights, on the banks of the Ganga River in the state of Uttar Pradesh. They will examine Hinduism at Banaras Hindu University while staying at the Haifa Guest House, experiencing the river at sunrise and at sunset and visiting temples and scholars. By plane, participants will then travel to Pune, Maharashtra, to examine Jainism, known for its teachings on nonviolence. They will reside at Naval Veerayatan, visit Jain temples and historic sites, and meet with Jain teachers. Finally, participants will travel by bus to Mumbai for departing flights back to the United States from BOM on the evening of Friday, July 29. Overall, participants should anticipate a three-week experience that is not intended to be religious, but rather, deeply educational and experiential.
The daily schedule will generally include 90 minutes of formal study with UTTI professors, followed by 90 minutes of scheduled sessions with the host institution’s leadership and teachers, typically in the morning. Afternoons generally will be devoted to field visits and time for reading, reflection, writing, and if applicable, the preparation of lesson plans according to the needs of each educator. At the end of the UTTI program, participants will convene for
one day to make formal presentations to the board of the Uberoi Foundation. Participants will receive a certificate of their participation and, as documentation for those educators who may subsequently want to apply for continuing educational credit, a description of the educational experience will also be provided.