Manchester Buddhist Centre

You may be aware that the Western Buddhist Order (WBO) and the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) have been in the pro­cess of agree­ing to change their names

This has been in response to a sug­ges­ted name change by the founder of the Order and move­ment – Sangharakshita. The name change sig­ni­fies how much the move­ment has changed since it was foun­ded in 1967. It is now a world­wide move­ment – not just based in the ‘west’, but cov­er­ing India, Russia and China, as well as Europe and North America

The change from ‘Friends of ’ to ‘Community’ also sig­ni­fies the emphasis on spir­itual com­munity and friend­ship that is such a cent­ral prac­tice within our tradition

We are now pleased to announce that the names have been offi­cially agreed as the Triratna Buddhist Order and the Triratna Buddhist Community. Triratna means Three Jewels – and refers to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha – the three jew­els that we go for refuge to

The name change will be form­ally cel­eb­rated at this year’s Wesak cel­eb­ra­tions – both at the MBC on Thursday 27th May, and at the FWBO / Triratna International Retreat 28th May – 1st June.

You will notice the name slowly begin­ning to change on our pub­li­city, web­site and other com­mu­nic­a­tions over the next few weeks. This will be quite a big task – so please bear with us!

For more inform­a­tion see FWBO news -

• Triratna Buddhist Order name change
• Triratna Buddhist Communtiy name change
• International Retreat Name Change Ceremony