Søren Buskov Poulsen, Graduate Student, University of Aarhus, Denmark
On the basis of ethnographic fieldwork following the science education of Tibetan monk-scholars, I explore the hierarchy of values and contexts that influence the engagement with science in Tibetan monasteries in exile. The engagement with science takes place in different social contexts and with groups of monk-scholars guided by distinct values and dispositions for the engagement with science. I compare the context of everyday encounters with science and reflections on the relationship between Buddhism and science with a context where this is explored through intensive workshops, dialogues, summer programs and conferences. Inspired by an ongoing reinterpretation of Louis Dumont’s work on hierarchies of value by the anthropologist Joel Robbins, I show some of the dynamics of harmony and conflicts that emerge in part through the relationship between the contexts where “Buddhism and science” is lived in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries.
