Monk Science Corner
Drepung Monastery
Group Members:
Lhundrup Gyaltso
Jime Gyatso
Gelek Gyaltsen
Geshe Ngawang Nyingtop
Tenzin Choegyal
Geshe Ngawang Gyatso
Geshe Yeshi
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Members from the Monk Science Corner were requested to help young monks prepare science exhibition at their local monastery. They were specifically asked to help the monks preparing exhibits on cosmology and the planets. Future science exhibitions by the monks at Drepung Monastery are already being planned for 2010. The exhibit in 2009 was organized by students in class 4 and 5, and the upcoming exhibition will be created by monks in classes 6 to 8.
Working with the Nargajunas Modern Science Group, they formed a book club to discuss HHDL “The Universe in a Single Atom” Members of the group included monks from Science Meets Dharma and the Emory Tibet Science Initiative. The main focus of discussion was on ethics in science.
One of the monks, Sherab Tenzin, was chosen by the extended group to lead the sessions and focus the conversations during their meeting. They chose Sherab Tenzin because of his experience as a school teacher, long-term participation in the science for monks program, plus he also had already finished reading the book. After the third meeting, the leaders asked the extended group if they wanted to continue discussing the book or stop. They unanimously agreed to continue discussing the book by selecting and focusing each meeting on a different topic/theme.
In future meetings they plan to invite Geshes (monastic PhD’s) to contribute to their discussion.
When the book was first published in Tibetan language and reached the monasteries, “so many monks started buying this book and after a few days, we would meet other monks and they’d say, I don’t understand the science subject, only the introduction part where he talks about how he got interested in science.”
Sonam Choephel started a writing group at his kangten (monk dorm). Each Monday night they meet and up to 70 students write together, and than share some of the writing. This model follows from the National Writing Project and was introduced to the monks in July 2008. Most of the writing was poems, poetry, stories, even novels, sometimes a topic is assigned, other times the topic was open. The monks like to write about ethics, philosophy, and their homeland, and writing and sharing as a group has been found to be a rewarding experience.