Buddhist Traditions of Tibet and the Himalayas

FAIN: EH-50182-08

College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA 01610-2395)
Todd T. Lewis (Project Director: March 2008 to May 2017)

A three-week interdisciplinary institute for twenty-five college and university teachers on Buddhist texts and practices in Tibet and Nepal.

The Himalayan and Tibetan regions were at times central to the spread and development of Mahayana Buddhism in Asia, just as myriad texts from monastic libraries in Nepal and Tibet were indispensable to modern Buddhist studies. This Institute will highlight Nepal's important historical legacy and distill many insights about Tibetan Buddhist traditions from recent scholarship. The Institute will build upon the region's canonical and vernacular texts, as well as examine rituals, meditation, healing traditions, and the role of art; the curriculum will also consider Buddhism's relations with shamanic and Hindu traditions. Exposure to the Institute's interdisciplinary approach to Buddhism in Tibet and Nepal will provide cogent case studies for teaching of Buddhism in an interdisciplinary manner. Participating scholars will also be empowered to build on student awareness of the Himalayan region to turn superficial interest into a more in-depth understanding of Buddhism.