The Young Buddhists Association of Thailand (YBAT), which has been actively promoting Buddhist meditation for more than six decades, plans to hold its second annual camp for international students in August, aiming to present Dharma teachings in a manner more accessible to young people who are new to meditation.

Indian Roots of Tibetan Buddhism, a 2014 documentary by Indian film-maker and conservator Benoy K. Behl, won the Best Documentary Producer Award at the Madrid International Film Festival earlier this month, competing with around 100 other films from 50 countries.

A standing bronze statue of the Tathagata Buddha, one of two ancient Buddhist statues stolen from Japan three years ago by South Korean thieves and designated an important cultural property by the Japanese government, has been returned to the island city of Tsushima in Japan’s Nagasaki Prefecture, the city office said.

The Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (TBRC) has announced the opening of the TBRC exhibition space on the Google Cultural Institute (GCI) online platform. The TBRC said its partnership with the GCI will enable web users to explore and interact with high-resolution images from selected Tibetan manuscripts.

Dharamsala, India -- In 1992, the neuroscientist Richard Davidson got a challenge from the Dalai Lama. By that point, he’d spent his career asking why people respond to, in his words, “life’s slings and arrows” in different ways. Why are some people more resilient than others in the face of tragedy? And is resilience something you can gain through practice?The Dalai Lama had a different question for Davidson when he visited the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader at his residence in Dharamsala, India. “He said: ‘You’ve been using the tools of modern neuroscience to study depression, and anxiety, and fear. Why can’t you use those same tools to study kindness and compassion?’ … I did not have a very good answer. I said it was hard.”

Psychologists and neuroscientists from Oxford University and University College London (UCL) are planning an unprecedented trial of the influence of mindfulness meditation on mental health, The Guardian newspaper has reported.

Renowned Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, known affectionately as Thay, has been able to communicate more clearly a very strong wish to intensify his recovery program, according to a recent statement from his monastery.

The exciting and thought-provoking new book “Shifting Stones, Shaping the Past: Sculpture from the Buddhist Stupas of Andhra Pradesh,” by University of Illinois assistant professor Catherine Becker, divides conveniently into two sections, the first part examining the major early Buddhist remains in Andhra Pradesh and the second focusing on the social context of newly built Buddhist monuments in the state. The modern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh faces the Bay of Bengal, sandwiched between Tamil Nadu to the south and West Bengal to the north. The country’s long coastline never figured into the Buddha’s life story and therefore Andhra Pradesh was never included among the major pilgrimage destinations, such as Bodh Gaya in Bihar or Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh. Nevertheless, Buddhism took firm root in ancient Andhra Pradesh, starting from as early as the 2nd century BCE.

Although he is not a Buddhist, defending tennis champion Novak Djokovic has been visiting Buddhapadipa Temple in leafy Wimbledon between matches and training sessions to recharge. The Serbian top seed and world number one is currently at the championships (which are taking place from 29 June to 12 July) and, since 2013, has been going to the temple to relax and meditate whenever in Wimbledon.

Hearing on local television broadcasts about the hundreds of children orphaned following the recent earthquakes in Nepal, Venerable Thich Nu Tri Thuan flew to Kathmandu to adopt them. “Now there are still humanitarian workers giving out basic necessities and assisting the victims in various parts of Nepal,” the Vietnamese Buddhist nun, who is the abbess of Linh-Son Chinese Buddhist temple in Kushinagar, northern India, told star2.com upon arriving in Nepal. “But in months to come, these workers will be gone.”