The Maitreya project claims to by a multi-million dollar project to embody peace and raise awareness of peace. It is being built by displacing communities from over 200 villages.

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The Maitreya project has huge goals. Its website, with a prominently placed video of Dalai Lama, says:

We live in very uncertain times. Humanity and all living things are constantly under threat and there is an urgent need to create the causes for harmony throughout the world. All of the world's major religions and humanitarian traditions teach the ethical values of tolerance, patience, loving-kindness and compassion. As these universal values are embraced and take root in the minds and hearts of more and more people, world peace will become attainable.

Maitreya Project is based on the belief that inner peace and outer peace share a cause and effect relationship and that loving-kindness leads to peace at every level of society — peace for individuals, families, communities and the world.

The Maitreya Buddha statue is being designed to last for at least 1,000 years. Through this entire new millennium and into the next, it will effect positive change within the hearts and minds of people all over the world and benefit the people of India through its social and economic activities.

Maitreya Project’s vision includes schools that focus on ethical and spiritual development as well as academic achievement, and a healthcare network based around a teaching hospital of international standard to provide healthcare services, particularly for the poor and underprivileged.

Maitreya Project is working with local, regional and state governments in Uttar Pradesh, India, where the Kushinagar Special Development Area Authority will support the planned development of the area surrounding the Project.

The Maitreya Buddha statue is being built to bring as much benefit as possible, for as long as possible, so that loving-kindness will eventually arise in the hearts of all beings.

The website claims over half a dozen regional offices globally and targetting communities in the US, Europe, Australia and Asia, it aims to raise millions of dollars. Quotes suggest affiliation to major Buddhist groups and blessings of big-name Lamas.

This project of peace, being planned in Kushinagar, in  Uttar Pradesh, is however based on injustice. People from over 200 villages in and around Kushinagar will be displaced. Initially the government said the project would only affect 7 villages. Now, the Maitreya project, being positioned as a tourism project, affects 122 villages and 135 surrounding villages are being affected by the Kushinagar Special Area Development. With no promise for rehabilitation, farmers from these 257 villages are fighting to save their land and livelihoods.

These communities have now started satyagraha to protest against this injustice. With a road block on Martyrs day, they kicked off their protests and now continue with a fast.

How a project for global peace will be built on the lives and livelihoods of thousands of farmers remains a question that the proponents of this project do not address.