A group of monks, nuns, and lay Buddhists from the New England Peace Pagoda in the town of Leverett is walking across the state of Massachusetts in support of immigrants and refugees seeking asylum in the US. This is the 16th annual “Walk for a New Spring” that began in Leverett on 12 March and will end in Washington, DC, on 8 April. This year the walk is dedicated to “Sanctuary Cities, Sanctuary World.”

Once every couple of years, news and social media light up around the world with images of the red-robed Dalai Lama seated upon a high ceremonial throne amid a sea of devoted followers and captivated audience members. This newsworthy and popular Buddhist event is the Kalachakra initiation, which has become something of a hallmark of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama as the religious gathering has enjoyed an undiminished popularity over the last six decades. Arenas filled to bursting with well-wishers and devotees have earned the self-proclaimed “simple Buddhist monk” quite the rock star status. At the start of this year’s event, a multitude of Vajrayana Buddhists and fans of the Dalai Lama from around the world converged on the holy site of Bodh Gaya in India to attend the “34th Kalachakra Initiation and Teachings” that began on 2 January.

Staring blankly into space, Pat Sorm sits on the steps of her house, hugging a photo of her son who died just a week earlier. Khon Kha was working in the military and had just turned 40. He had battled with AIDS for the last 10 years of his life. A funeral ceremony was performed in a simple, yet dignified manner, with support from a donation of US$30 that Pat Sorm received from the Salvation Centre Cambodia (SCC). Cremation alone had cost some US$50, but she was at least comforted that the proper Buddhist rituals would allow her son to move on in peace.

HONG KONG—Marking its ambitious initiative to expand the scope of its mission to digitally preserve the literary traditions of Tibetan Buddhism to encompass Buddhist traditions in other languages,* the former Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center has announced that it has officially changed its name to the Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC). Established with the objective of preserving, cataloguing, digitizing, and disseminating Tibetan Buddhist literature, the BDRC will this year begin digitally preserving and making accessible Buddhist texts and traditions in other languages, including Chinese, Pali, and Sanskrit.

On 5 March, Jigme Pema Wangchen, the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa of the Drukpa Order, was recognized in a US Congressional Record for empowering women in the Himalayas and supporting green initiatives.

The simple question of “What is a Buddha?” was raised in a casual discussion with a venerable Pure Land master in Vancouver. The group leader asked the participants to comment on this question before the master responded. The group was ready with their answers. After all, every Buddhist should have something to say on this vital topic, and most have enough information for a composite answer via Wikipedia or Google.

After seven years of CT scans and in-depth investigation and analysis, one of the most famous works of Buddhist art in Japan, a three-faced, six-armed statue of Ashura, which has been dated to the 8th century, has revealed some of the secrets to its history and original appearance that have for years been the subject of debate among art historians.

The Tibetan Plateau is home to some of the world’s rarest wild species, among them the elusive snow leopard. With estimates for the total global population ranging from 3,920–6,390 in the wild, snow leopards are classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.* In recent years, however, an unlikely wildlife activist has embarked on a self-imposed mission to record the declining biodiversity of the Tibetan Plateau. The Buddhist monk, who comes from a traditional Tibetan nomadic community and goes by the name Drukyab, travels through the Himalayas documenting the snow leopard, along with other other flora and fauna in the remote region, seeking to raise awareness about threats to the region’s delicate ecological balance.

The influential Tibetan teacher and respected author Kyabje Gelek Rinpoche, a tulku in the Gelugpa school of Vajrayan Buddhism has died. A notice on his Facebook page advised that Gelek Rinpoche had passed away in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

A new study from an international team of researchers indicates that climate change poses a direct threat to fragile mountain habitats, affecting both glaciers and the proliferation of high-altitude species. The international study, which examined seven of the world’s major mountain regions, which are warming twice as fast as the global average, found that higher temperatures are speeding up microbial activity, and leading to fundamental changes that could displace some plant life and dramatically alter the habitat of others.