A little history of our work

Science for Monks has been running annual science workshops for Tibetan monastic leaders since 2001. That project has been a joint effort between the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives and the Bobby Sager Family Foundation . Bryce Johnson (see him in the early days photos in the link on the top right of the blog) has been the coordinator extraordinare.

The workshops have taken place in India since many Tibetans are in exile there. There's lots of historical information available about the Tibetan's plight and relocation to India about 50 years ago if you want to check it out on the web or read the Dalai Lama's autobiography for some personal and vivid details about it all. In the move, the Indian government gave land to the Tibetans to locate in Dharamsala which is now is the seat of the exile Tibetan government and home to many monastic leaders (Monks and Nuns).

This past year, the Emory-Tibet Initiative began planning for additional science workshops through the Emory-Tibet-Science-Initiative for monastic leaders. They are coordinating their work with the Bobby Sager Family Foundation which has morphed the Science for Monks to the next level with the development of the Teacher Leadership Institute. The purpose of the TLI is sustaining the science and science education effort, or in other words, developing sustainability within the monastic community.

I will be one of the leaders on the TLI team. The others are Mark St. John of Inverness Research; Richard Sterling of The National Writing Project and UC-Berkley; Gail Burd and Chris Impey, both professors at the University of AZ.

CCTV9's response to last week's video

Check out China's CCTV9's newscast documentary to last week's riots at
YouTube part 1 and YouTube part 2

Chaos in Lhasa!

We're on a ski trip and just getting ready to head home from Lake Tahoe. Bob noticed that there's a crack down in Tibet. The Chinese have stormed the monasteries.
See more at
this tourist video and
The Guardian's website

What am I reading at the moment?

I know a lot about science, science education and leadership but don't know as much about Tibet's history and Buddhism. So, I went off to gather some reading and amd finding it very interesting. You might want to read some of these yourself:

a) Freedom in Exile which is the Dalai Lama's Autobiography. It is really interesting because it provide a personal perspective on growing up as the 14th Dalai Lama and the drama of the Chinese take over and his flight in darkness over the Himalayan Mountains to India

b) Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism a primer on the history of Tibet and a detailed description of Tibetan Buddhism

c) Seven Years in Tibet written by Heinrich Harrer, one of the first Westerners to enter Tibet. He became a confidente to the young Dalai Lama and writes about his travels from a POW camp in India to Lhasa and his relationship with His Holiness

d) The Sound of Two Hands Clapping written by Georges Dreyfus, a Swiss man who entered a Tibetan Monastery and writes about the specific training that Tibetan Monks receive

There are many more books for your reading pleasure from Barnes and Noble or Amazon but I wanted to mention Snow Lion Publications as a treasure trove of all information on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism.