Tibetan Monks Begin Teaching Science

Recently, the first ever science exhibition by Tibetan monastics was organized by monk leaders participating in the Sager Science Leadership for Monks program founded by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Sager Family Traveling Foundation and Roadshow. Monks, representing various Tibetan monastic traditions in India, presented exhibits addressing a fundamental question of interest to both Buddhism and western science, including:

How do we remember what we saw yesterday?
How is sound made and heard?
How was our universe formed?
What is light and where does color come from?
What are the elements?
Why do we look the way we do?

The monks approached these questions from both the Buddhist and scientific viewpoints, utilizing a wide variety of teaching techniques, from hands-on activities, lectures, and a great deal of interactive dialogue. The exhibition reached out to a wide range of students from elementary to high school students, monks and nuns, and government officials from the exiled government.

The Sager Family Traveling Foundation and Roadshow has been supporting the Sager Science Leadership for Monks program since 2002, which marked the first time in history that western science had been taught to Tibetan monks as part of their monastic studies. This science exhibition signals a transition in the program’s focus, from teaching science to Tibetan monks to teaching these monks to teach science to other monks. The objective is to create a core group of monk leaders with the tools and training to share science learning with their peers in the monasteries as a way to reach the program’s long-term goal, as initiated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to introduce science education as part of the monasteries’ core curriculum.

Click below for some recent articles covering this historic event:
http://www.nytimes.com
http://www.phayul.com