Chelsea Hall, Graduate Student, Harvard University
I would like to focus on Science and the Buddhist Revival at Serta Larung Gar, the site of my ethnographic research. Why is a traditional Buddhist educational institution interested in importing “Western” science? Through this poster presentation, I hope to give the reader a sense of the scope and influence of Serta and its leaders by discussing the importation of scientific knowledge around consciousness theory, and including photography of Serta itself. What interplay of demand and circumstance generated a flourishing dialogue between influencers such as Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro from the biggest Tibetan Buddhist institution in the world and some of the West’s greatest scientific minds? I hope to explore the importation of science through Buddhist logic discourse around consciousness as a way of projecting a modern ecumenical Tibetan Buddhist image to the domestic and international viewer, and how this demand for new scientific knowledge represents a desire to reinforce the versimilitude of Buddhist logic.
