Talk:Buddha Hall and Chuang Tzu Auditorium

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Buddha Hall
Buddha Hall
Gautam the Buddha Auditorium
Chuang Tzu Auditorium

For most visitors to the wiki, these iconic places where Osho gives so many discourses and darshans likely need no introduction. That may happen eventually but for now the primary focus is on their early history: when were they built and when did they start getting used for Osho's events?

Osho moved to Pune from Mumbai on Mar 21, 1974. Some preparatory work had been done, stuff moved, living quarters arranged, but there was a whole lot of infrastructure that wasn't in Pune in the beginning and had to be created, including Buddha Hall and Chuang Tzu, sites of so many discourses, darshans and celebrations. Info elsewhere on the net about them is sparse and inconsistent, with some sources putting Buddha Hall's opening in 1975 and some 1977 ...

Even the CD-ROM may not be so reliable in this aspect of its data in Pune One. It has its very first Pune series, My Way: The Way of the White Clouds, as given in Buddha Hall but May 1974 seems too early for a completed Buddha Hall. And it has the next series, a translation of Nahin Ram Bin Thaon, also in Buddha Hall, while the writer remembers all the Hindi series he went to, mostly in 1978, in Chuang Tzu.

Memory of course can be unreliable, so we need to hear from others who (think they) "know" to find some consensus. The question of where Hindi discourses were held is especially tricky, as they certainly were not in Buddha Hall from when it was built, perhaps because attendance was smaller and Osho wanted to keep the more intimate atmosphere of Chuang Tzu for those talks. At any rate, in the wiki for now, we are placing Hindi talks somewhat arbitrarily in Buddha Hall towards the end of Pune One and Chuang Tzu for the early and middle years, with some allowance for high season swings and celebration times. Personal accounts and reliable sources are welcome.

In Pune Two, Buddha Hall underwent a substantial renovation, even getting a new name, Gautam the Buddha Auditorium, and was not in use for much of 1987. The CD-ROM has discourses mostly in Chuang Tzu for that year with a couple of short "tries" in GtBA until back there for good on Dec 22, for discourse three of Om Mani Padme Hum. This all fits with memory, reports and anecdote, so it looks reliable for that period.

One account of the early days has it thus:

"I arrived in late July, '74, and I might have been there for at least a few of the 'White Clouds' series or it might recently have ended by then, not sure. Anyway, Buddha Hall certainly didn't exist then, and the early talks were held at some sort of porch area, quite small really; looking back, remarkably intimate. But that wasn't the darshan area, which was behind the main building, to the left, I think. [Radha Hall?] The meditations and camps also took place in the area behind the main building. By the time I left, towards mid-May, '75, Buddha Hall did exist and Osho was a faraway figure...."
And Yogi's recollection: "The first discourses in Pune were held on a covered balcony on the second floor directly above Osho's room. We entered by way of Chuang Tzu Auditorium where Osho held Darshan in later years, past by his room, and up the stairs. It was a very intimate space. I don't think there were more than 70 people as I remember laying down at the back being blown away by The Mustard Seed discourses.
"The discourses on the upper balcony were very intimate. There may have been less than 70 people. I remember having space at the back to lay down. Very powerful atmosphere, especially during the Mustard Seed. Many people left crying and needing help to get out. For myself it was the first time I had come to know Jesus despite being raised in a so-called Christian culture.
"The Chuang Tzu Darshan space was the next venue for the discourses as people we now arriving in greater numbers. That would have been by late '74. In the garden behind Krishna house Osho conducted Shaktipat in the mornings. Buddha Hall was completed in 1975 and the new roof constructed in late '77."

-- doofus-9 (talk) 23:14, 1 February 2015 (PST)



The original Buddha Hall was built in 1975, being a large concrete slab with a tent like structure over it. Over the years, there have been many improvements to the Hall. There was a marble floor laid and a marble podium, then in 1981, when the Commune moved to the United States, the podium was sold.

When Osho returned to Pune in 1986 the Hall was rebuilt again, first as a tent structure, then later in 1987 as a very large, arched tent, said to be the largest in the East. The marble was relaid and a beautiful marble podium built.

The currently used pyramid auditorium was inaugurated Nov 1, 2002.

A few days later, the marble pagoda behind the podium, the roof and the walls of the old hall were demolished. The marble floor and podium are still being used for various resort activities like dojo and archery. --Rudra (talk) 14:43, 3 February 2015 (UTC)