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Published October 27, 2021 | Published
Journal Article Open

The Path of Science in Future Tibetan Buddhist Education

Abstract

The Emory-Tibet Science Initiative (ETSI) allowed western science teachers to work with monastically educated Buddhist monks to further their science education. The challenges included teaching through translators, using best practices for teaching within a religious community, and thinking about how to integrate what we learned from teaching in this context to our classrooms back home. In this article, we, a diverse group of western college-level educators and scientists, share our personal experiences and thoughts about teaching in this unique context in several themes. These themes are the challenges of translation and the development of new Tibetan science dictionary, the importance of hands-on learning opportunities as an example of using best teaching practices, using technology and online resources to connect our communities through both space and time, and the imperative of future plans to continue these important cross-cultural efforts.

Additional Information

© 2021 Woodward, Ricks, Bjorkman, Tsoulfas, Johnson, Westmoreland and Wilkie. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Received: 27 June 2021; Accepted: 17 August 2021; Published: 27 October 2021. We thank our wonderful translators and would have been lost without their knowledge, compassion, insight, story-telling talents, and humor in both Tibetan and English. Namely, Gehshe-la's Dadul Namgyal, Dawa Tsering, Tsundue Choephel, Gelek Gyatso, Lodoe Sangpo, Yungdrung Kunchok, Sonam Choephel, Bat-Itgel Tsedendamba, Legpa Gyatso, and Tenzin Rabga at Drepung; Geshe-la's Ngawang Norbu, Kalden Gyatso, Legpa and Lobsang Gonpu at Sera. We thank Jordan Wilkie and Tovah Zivot for their contributions to teaching English and Scientific Method to young monks in the Drepung complex. We are indebted to Ken Duffy, Roland DeGouvenain, Yalda Zolghadri, Tom Templeton, Bonnie Sand, and Leslie Ross for comments on the manuscript, and all our friends and colleagues who provided inspiration and shared insights over the years. We also say thank you to Tsetan Dolkar, who helped everyone, everywhere, with everything. Data Availability Statement: The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author. Author Contributions: TW, JJ, and DW collectively wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Contributed to conception and design of the study. DW, JJ, TW, PB, PT, ER, and GW wrote sections of the manuscript. All authors contributed to conception and design of the study. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Created:
August 22, 2023
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December 22, 2023