[Buddha-l] Tibetan Monks and Nuns Turn Their Minds Toward Science

[jkirk]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/science/30monks.html?partner=rs
s&emc=rss

In Dharamshala, Tibetan Monks and Nuns Turn Their Minds Toward
Science 

Excerpts:
Initial resistance from some senior monks and fears of diluting
traditional studies in monasteries have gradually eased. Now the
Dalai Lama hopes that, with help from Emory and other programs,
science will become part of a new curriculum, with science
textbooks in Tibetan and specialist translators, leading to a
generation of monastic leaders that are scientifically literate.

"If you remain isolated, you will disappear," said Lhakdor,
director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, in
Dharamsala, who goes by one name. The Dalai Lama himself has
often remarked that isolation from the world only aided Tibet's
fall to China.

The Emory Tibet Science Initiative, of which this session was
part, is now in its second year. It was preceded by the "Science
for Monks" program, which started in 2001 with support from Bobby
Sager, a Boston philanthropist. At the behest of the Dalai Lama,
the earlier program brought science teachers from various
American universities to teach Tibetan monks in India.

That program has matured into the Emory-backed plan to introduce
modern science into Tibetan monasteries in India within the next
few years with help from the Library of Tibetan Works and
Archives.
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