30/10/2015 21:35 (GMT+7)
Fifteen of the world's most senior Buddhists have issued a landmark call to political leaders to adopt an effective climate change agreement at the UN negotiations in Paris starting 30 November. |
30/10/2015 21:27 (GMT+7)
A recent Buddhist Society conference in Britain entitled “Mindfulness: Secular, Religious, Both or Neither?,” which examined the remarkable growth of the secular mindfulness movement, sounded a note of caution about a lack of regulation in the training of mindfulness meditation teachers. The mindfulness movement is in danger of being turned into a commodity, the audience of Buddhists and secular mindfulness practitioners was told—“a product to be bought and sold on the free market.” |
28/10/2015 20:57 (GMT+7)
Three years after the parinirvana of Kyabje Dungse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, Rinpoche's reincarnation has now been found and confirmed in Bhutan. Sey Rinpoche (Dungse Gyanata Rinpoche) was officially recognized on the day of the full moon, an auspicious day in the Tibetan calendar, by HH Dodrupchen Rinpoche. A beautiful rainbow was seen when the news was announced. |
28/10/2015 20:51 (GMT+7)
In a rare public statement, Gyaltsen Norbu, appointed by Beijing as the 11th Panchen Lama, has called for tighter controls on peregrine monks to ensure they follow the Buddha’s teachings. He was speaking at the Fourth World Buddhist Forum, which was held in the city of Wuxi, near Shanghai, from 24–25 October. |
28/10/2015 20:47 (GMT+7)
A Japanese Buddhist monk last week completed a grueling nine-day ritual during which he recited the mantra of the Buddhist deity Achala 100,000 times—forgoing water, food, sleep, and even lying down for the entire period. Kogen Kamahori, 41, of the Tendai school of Buddhism, became the first person in Japan in eight years to complete the feat and only the thirteenth to do so since the end of World War II. |
24/10/2015 16:23 (GMT+7)
As Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s Act East policy gets under way, a five-day “Bodh Sanskriti Mahotsav” (Buddhist Cultural Grand Festival) was celebrated at the beginning of October at Dirang stadium in the picturesque Dirang Valley of Arunachal Pradesh’s West Kameng District. The valley reverberated with the sounds of chanting lamas and Buddhist dance performances as the event showcased a variety of art forms integral to Tibetan Buddhism, including the making of a colored sand mandala and thangka painting demonstrations in addition to the chants and dances. |
23/10/2015 16:49 (GMT+7)
Projects associated with Buddhism & Australia were presented at the Pacific Neighborhood Consortium (PNC) 2015 Annual Conference and Joint Meeting at the University of Macau last month as part of the special Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI) workshops hosted by UC Berkeley. Co-organized by Academia Sinica (Taiwan), UC Berkeley (USA), and the University of Macau, the main theme of the conference, which ran from 27–29 September, was “Taking Private Data into the Public Domain.” |
22/10/2015 11:38 (GMT+7)
London, UK - The Attlee Room in parliament will fall quiet on Tuesday to hear one of the country’s leading meditation teachers explain the basics of the 2,400-year-old tradition of mindfulness. |
21/10/2015 17:26 (GMT+7)
Situated high on the Tibetan Plateau, Yarchen Gar Monastery nestles at an elevation of more than 13,000 feet in a remote valley of the Hengduan mountain range in China's southwestern Sichuan Province. With a monastic population numbering about 10,000—most of them nuns—Yarchen Gar is widely considered to be the world’s largest monastery. |
19/10/2015 22:51 (GMT+7)
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrived in the country’s restive Rakhine State on Friday for three days of electoral campaigning, aiming to garner voter support and to address growing religious tensions between Buddhists and Muslims that has characterized the run-up to the national election scheduled for 8 November. |
17/10/2015 09:26 (GMT+7)
On 2 October, the nation of India paid homage to the great apostle of peace Mahatma Gandhi on the occasion of the 146th anniversary of his birth. An interfaith prayer ceremony was held between 7.30 and 8.30 a.m. on the verdant lawns of the Raj Ghat memorial in New Delhi, which marks the spot of his cremation in 1948. The ceremony was attended by Indian president Pranab Mukherjee, prime minister Narendra Modi, congress chief Sonia Gandhi, and other dignitaries, including the ambassadors of France and Japan, who laid wreathed tributes to Gandhi at the memorial. A large number of schoolchildren also gathered at the venue to pay their respects. |
16/10/2015 09:50 (GMT+7)
A Buddhist group in South Korea said on Wednesday that it plans to renew efforts to arrange for His Holiness the Dalai Lama to visit South Korea in 2017. The South Korean government has refused repeated requests from Buddhists in the country, including in 2002 and 2007, to allow a visit by the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate out of concern that it could strain political and economic ties between Seoul and Beijing. |
10/10/2015 20:35 (GMT+7)
Indonesia’s coordinating minister for maritime affairs has said that Indonesia aims to make Borobudur, an ancient Mahayana Buddhist temple complex and UNESCO world heritage site in Central Java, into a major Buddhist tourism destination and place of pilgrimage for Buddhists from all over the world. |
10/10/2015 20:35 (GMT+7)
The Buddhist Society of India together with the Ogawa Society and Buddha Spiritual Park in Nagpur are planning a series of events in the city, which is located in Maharashtra State, to commemorate the life and work and conversion to Buddhism of the Indian scholar, social activist, and reformer Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–56). Having studied Buddhism for much of his life, Ambedkar formally accepted the Three Refuges and Five Precepts and converted to Buddhism shortly before his death, along with 500,000 supporters. |
08/10/2015 17:04 (GMT+7)
The Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia’s principal security agency and the main successor of the former USSR’s Committee of State Security (KGB), has ordered the deportation of Tibetan lama Shiwalha Rinpoche, who has been practicing in the country for more than 10 years, reportedly deeming the Buddhist leader a threat to national security. |
07/10/2015 20:16 (GMT+7)
The Embassy of the United States of America in Sri Lanka has announced new grants totaling US$300,000 to help fund the restoration of the ancient Rajagala Monastery and the preservation of other artifacts stored at Anuradhapura Archaeological Museum. Since 2005, the embassy has provided grants for 11 conservation projects in Sri Lanka through the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP), representing total funding of more than US$730,000. |
07/10/2015 19:52 (GMT+7)
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) has announced the third year of an initiative supporting research and teaching in Buddhist Studies funded by a three-year grant of US$6.7 million from The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation. |
06/10/2015 12:04 (GMT+7)
Tsukiji Hongwanji, a renowned Buddhist temple in Tokyo, is banking on the experience of business-consultant-turned-Buddhist-monk Yugen Yasunaga in the hope that his business management acumen can help revive flagging attendance and draw followers from metropolitan Tokyo and the surrounding areas. |
05/10/2015 11:39 (GMT+7)
During an audience today with the Tibetan community in the Minneapolis area, His Holiness the Dalai Lama commented on his health and reassured people that he was well. |
03/10/2015 13:44 (GMT+7)
In his first public appearance following an official announcement just days ago that he would cancel this month’s public engagements in the US on doctors’ orders, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said that he remains in good health and reassured audience members that there was no need to worry. His Holiness was speaking ahead of his planned return on Saturday to his official residence in Dharamsala, northern India. |
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