Bhutan Science Leadership

In July, 2019, we launched a new initiative to train monastic teacher-leaders to bring enriching engagement between science and Buddhism to their community. The first two-week institute focused on conceptual foundations of chemistry and neuroscience and began developing project ideas that they will implement starting next year. The 35 participants in the workshop were laity-school and monastic teachers, however, none of them had previously studied science. They represented 18 of the 20 districts of Bhutan. Together, they reach approximately 30,000 students each year. Most taught high-school aged students subjects like language (Dzongkar), Buddhist philosophy, human values, and life skills.

In 2015, monastics with the Ati Foundation in Bhutan contacted us, hoping that we might expand to Bhutan. Buddhism in Bhutan is characterized by mostly Kagyu and Nyingma lineages, like those found in Tibet, and that have developed into distinct lineages of Bhutanese Buddhism. 

Our activities in Bhutan seek to involve monastics from across the country, and steadily position a team of Bhutanese monastics that can champion future activities that deepen an indigenous commitment to exchanges and dialogues with science.