The Dalai Lama on science education
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
The Universe in a Single Atom (pages 9-10)
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Mind and Life XIV, April 9, 2007
His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama
Gyumed Monastery, 1987
History
For the past 10 years, Science for Monks has brought Western scientists to India for annual workshops designed to teach the concepts of Western science to Tibetan monastics in exile. Sparked by the interests and directives of the Dalai Lama, the program has sought to introduce science education to the major Buddhist monastic centers of higher learning within the exiled community. Over the years, 25 Western scientists have taught more than 100 monks about cosmology, neuroscience, and principles of scientific inquiry.
The Library of Tibetan Works & Archives (LTWA) monastic science initiative began in 1999 through the instruction of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the then LTWA director, Achok Rinpoche. A group of 50 monastic scholars with a deep understanding of Buddhist philosophy were selected to study science. In the main hall of Gyumed Monastery, in the presence of all the abbots of different monasteries and Geshes and thousand of monks, His Holiness announced that he would like to introduce formal science education in all the “three seats” of Gelukpa university monasteries and asked LTWA to shoulder this responsibility. Although the Library had almost no expertise in science at the time, their capacity as a center of learning serving all the major Tibetan Buddhist traditions was ideal for implementing the project. In the first year of the project, LTWA set-up a team of 4 translators which would translate various scientific materials into Tibetan and at the same time organize science courses for a select group of scholarly monks. In 2000, a group of 50 monastic scholars with a deep understanding of Buddhist philosophy were selected to study science. In order to provide science education in a manner that did not distract from the monks intensive program of Buddhist studies, a 4-week intensive course was organized in between the traditional monastic semesters.
In 2001, the Sager Family Foundation partnered with the Tibetan Library to introduce western science into the monastic centers of higher-learning. Despite the challenges of finding qualified teachers, translators and the daunting but vital task of coordinating participants from several monasteries and teachers from around the world, nine workshops were successfully organized between 2000 and 2007:
- 2000 Sera Monastery
- 2001 Gaden Monastery
- 2002 Drepung Monastery
- 2003 Upper Dharamshala Tibetan Children’s Village
- 2004 Gopalpur Tibetan Children’s Village
- 2005 Selakui Tibetan Children’s Village
- 2006 Selakui Tibetan Children’s Village
- 2007 Sera Monastery
- 2007 Deer Park Institute – Bir
A major outcome of these workshops was an overwhelming demand for science education within the monastic institutions and in 2008 a group of 30 science leaders began training to teach science and start implementing science education programs and dialogue within their local monasteries.