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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.