His Holiness the Dalai Lama last week officially consecrated the Dalai Lama Institute for Higher Education in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru (also known as Bangalore), taking the opportunity to congratulate the college’s first raft of graduates. His Holiness also laid the foundation stone for a branch of Men-Tsee-Khang, the Tibetan Medicine and Astro-science Institute, which will be constructed nearby.

Jigme Dorje Palbar Bista, the last king of the ancient Buddhist kingdom of Upper Mustang died on Friday in Kathmandu at the age of 86. Prior to stepping down from the throne eight years ago, Bista had reigned over the isolated Himalayan region high on the Tibetan plateau for more than 50 years. Ceremonies were held at temples in the Nepalese capital to mark his passing. His remains are being held at a monastery at Bauddha, where final rites were held today.

On 12 December, Ven. Prayudh Payutto was appointed to the rank of somdej phrarachakhana, one of the highest positions within the Supreme Sangha Council (SSC) of Thailand. Ven. Payutto was promoted along with 159 monks at an annual ceremony in the presence of Thailand’s new king, Maha Vajiralongkorn. Monks holding the somdej title belong to the country’s most senior monastic echelon. Numbering 21 members, the SSC is Thailand’s Buddhist governing body.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama will bestow Geshema degrees on 20 Tibetan Buddhist nuns at Drepung Loseling Monastery in Mundgod, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, on 22 December, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) announced on its website yesterday. The certificates will be awarded by His Holiness during the 600th founding anniversary celebrations for the original Drepung Monastery—one of the three largest Gelug monasteries in Tibet.

The renowned Zen Buddhist monk and teacher Thich Nhat Hanh (known affectionately as Thay), arrived in Thailand on Saturday, as the Plum Village monastic community that he founded in southern France enters the fourth week of its annual three-month retreat for monastic residents, led by the community’s senior Dharma teachers. 

The tall and robust teacher of Ajahn Chah’s forest tradition speaks with a typically blokeish Aussie accent, however the words of wisdom and compassion he voices do not sound like those of a typical bloke at all. While I have deep traditionalist loyalties and instincts, I have long admired Ajahn Bhante Sujato, who ordained in 1994 and left behind his identity of Anthony Best to live the monastic life. He is one of the most incisive and courageous progressive thinkers in contemporary Western Buddhism. He has not updated his famous blog, which remains an engaging and passionate source of Buddhist social critique, in a while however, having lived in seclusion in Taiwan over the past year to work on his main project, SuttaCentral, a website hosting texts from Buddhism’s most ancient period (the so-called pre-sectarian era) in more than 30 languages. 

The University of Toronto has launched The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies on its St. George campus. An endowment—originally from Tung Lin Kok Yuen, the Hong-Kong based charitable organization established by Mr. Robert H. N. Ho’s grandmother, Lady Clara Ho Tung—will provide an intellectual home for the largest contingent of Buddhist studies experts in Canada.

The rate of deforestation in the Amazon has risen for a fourth consecutive year, according to a new study published by the Brazilian government, which estimated an alarming 29 per cent increase from last year. According to data released by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which is based on satellite imagery, the country’s rainforest was depleted by an estimated 7,989 square kilometers between August 2015 and July 2016, compared with a loss of 6,207 square kilometers a year earlier.

The International Buddhist Festival was held on 27 November at Chetiyagiri Vihara in the town of Sanchi. Sanchi is 46km to the northeast of Bhopal in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The event attracted hundreds of local and foreign tourists, hailing from as far afield as Japan, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan, who gathered to pay homage to holy relics of the Buddha’s two foremost disciples, Shariputra and Maudgalyayana. This tradition has been observed annually for the past 65 years, usually on the last Sunday of November. 

Venerable Gelong Thubten, a Buddhist monk of the Tibetan tradition and a mindfulness teacher based in the United Kingdom, has been actively involved in teaching mindfulness meditation at businesses, schools, and prisons for years. However, his latest students are somewhat more glamorous, including top Hollywood stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Tilda Swinton, and other cast members of the recent Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster Doctor Strange, which hit theaters in October.