Meeting wellwishers during a royal visit to Birkenhead in Merseyside, England, on 14 January, Britain’s Prince Harry reportedly shared with 69-year-old Buddhist monk Kelsang Sonam that he meditates every day. Following their conversation, Kelsang Sonam presented the prince a copy of the book Eight Steps to Happiness: The Buddhist Way of Loving Kindness by the Tibetan Dharma teacher Kelsang Gyatso.

Archaeologists have unearthed a carved Buddha head at a Ramdev Pir temple—a temple dedicated to a the local Hindu folk deity Baba Ramdev—at Negardi Village near Taranga in the Indian state Gujarat. According to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the find will further consolidate the work of Excavation Branch V of the ASI, which has expanded the search and excavation of Buddhist-related sites to include northern Gujarat.

On 13 November, Buddhist leaders from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia met in Vientiane, the capital of Laos,to “strengthen co-operation between the three countries’ Buddhist organizations and promote and develop Lao Buddhism [both] in the region and internationally.” This meeting, attended by over 500 monastics, was called “The 1st Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Buddhist Leaders' Conference.” (Việt Nam News) 

Roughly one in seven children in Japan—or 2.8 million children—live in relative poverty, according to media reports, making it one of the most serious, albeit tragically hidden, social problems in contemporary Japanese society. While Japan is a modern and wealthy nation, economic distress often goes hand in hand with social isolation, and most instances of child poverty can go unnoticed until a tragic case makes its way into the mainstream media. In one such case, a 28-year-old mother and her three-year-old son died of starvation in Osaka in 2013, shocking the nation and inspiring Buddhist priest Seirou Matsushima to find a way to address the crisis.

Hosting a gathering of 28 youth leaders from 14 countries plagued with conflict and war, His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Wednesday counseled the young visitors to his official residence in Dharamsala, northern India, with one of the fundamental understandings of the Buddhist teachings—that even when based on justified reasons or with sincere motivations, actions founded in or motivated by anger only exacerbate and continue the cycle of violence and conflict.

Veteran actor and film star Chow Yun-fat may have achieved global superstardom, but the trappings of that success don’t seem to have gone to his head as the self-professed Buddhist recently revealed that he plans to donate the bulk of his considerable fortune to charity.

The Carnegie Foundation and The Elijah Interfaith Institute have announced that they are working on a historic friendship treaty between the world’s largest religions, intending to invite senior leaders from various world faiths—such as the Dalai Lama, the Pope, and the Grand Mufti—to The Hague in June 2020 to sign the historic declaration at a summit to be held at the Peace Palace. 

The respected Dzogchen master and founder of the Merigar Community, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, has passed away at the age of 79. He breathed his last breath on the evening of 27 September at his residence, Gadeling, at Merigar West Buddhist Center, Italy.

More than 40 years after the end of the Vietnam War, a Korean Buddhist monk has made it his mission to help heal the deep wounds the conflict created between his country and Vietnam. Running thousands of miles to raise funds and demonstrate his solidarity with the people of Vietnam, Venerable Jino has dedicated his life to helping Vietnam and to improving the lives of Vietnamese migrants in South Korea.

In contrast to the common belief that religion in general is antagonistic toward women, Buddhism has in many ways been women’s ally in supporting their rights and honoring them by promoting the equality of all human beings. This might be quite a difficult narrative to sell for a number of reasons, yet by looking at the early history and fundamental philosophy of Buddhism, we’ll come to understand this to be true. From its start in the Indian subcontinent, Buddhism emerged as not only a new form of spirituality, as part of the sramana movement that challenged the established religions and their clerics, but also as a spiritual and social movement bringing more equality and eradicating customs that no longer serve the wellbeing of the general populace.