Conference: Birds as Ornithologists: Scholarship between Faith and Reason

23 July 2017

July 23–25, 2017, Namdroling Monastery, South India

In 2015 the Khyentse Center launched the “Academic Research Program Initiative” (ARPI), a project whose main objectives are to assist setting up research centers of Tibetan Buddhism at Tibetan Buddhist monastic institutions in South Asia, train Buddhist monk and nun scholars in pursuing modern academic (i.e. historical-philological) study of Tibetan Buddhist texts and ideas, and create an environment for fruitful collaboration between traditional and modern scholars from the western academia. Following the numerous workshops conducted thus far within the ARPI framework and the experience gained thus far, the conference “Birds as Ornithologists: Scholarship between Faith and Reason” has been conceived to address various issues concerned with traditional versus modern scholarship at religious seminaries, and will attempt to discuss possible tensions and solutions, prospects and concerns, from both historical and future perspectives. We wish to address these issues with speakers not only from the various Buddhist traditions, but also from other religious traditions, particularly such with longer history of interaction between traditional and modern scholarships.

• Click here to download the program [PDF]