In February 2006, Emory University and the Library of Tibetan Work and Archives created the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative to develop and implement a comprehensive science education curriculum for Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns currently living in exile in India. This landmark undertaking is a joint enterprise between Emory University and the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. On the Emory side, ETSI is organized and administered by the Emory-Tibet Partnership, in conjunction with the Office for Undergraduate Education, and Emory College's Program in Science and Society.

Origins

Over the past forty years, the Dalai Lama has engaged in dialogue with and received tutelage from some of the most prominent scientific minds of our times. His insights and enthusiasm have been the impetus for the organization and expansion of ongoing conferences and workshops on the interface between Buddhism and science and he has encouraged meditation practitioners to participate in scientific and medical research.

Recognizing the implications of developing a modern science program with regards to the future and vitality of Tibetan culture and religion, as well as realizing the value of Buddhism to science and vice versa, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has led a campaign to institute basic science education in Tibetan Buddhist monastic colleges and academic centers throughout India.

In January of 2000, His Holiness the 14 th Dalai Lama initiated the Science Education Program with the aim of exposing monastic religious scholars to science. In an audience with ETSI representatives in the summer of 2006 His Holiness expressed his opinion that the time had come to shift from mere exposure to a systematic, sustainable, and comprehensive training in the sciences. His Holiness the Dalai Lama charged Geshe Lhakdor, as director for the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, with the responsibility of bringing this valuable project to fruition and invited Emory into an institutional collaboration:

“I deeply appreciate that Emory University has accepted my invitation, and has made a commitment to fully collaborate with the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives to develop and implement a comprehensive and sustainable science education program for Tibetan monastic institutions. I have long believed in and advocated a dialogue and cross-fertilization between science and spirituality, as both are essential for enriching human life and alleviating suffering on both individual and global levels. The Emory-Tibet Science Initiative has a unique opportunity to fulfill this need, and thus make a contribution not only to the Emory and Tibetan communities, but to the world at large, by expanding the horizons of human knowledge and wisdom.”

His Holiness the 14 th Dalai Lama (in his letter accepting the position of Presidential Distinguished Professor at Emory)

Mission

ETSI is dedicated to creating and maintaining programs that facilitate a convergence of science and spirituality for the sake of contributing to the expansion of human knowledge and wellbeing.

ETSI strongly believes that a critical step in achieving our goal is endeavoring towards the fulfillment of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's vision of a comprehensive and sustainable science curriculum designed for and implemented as an integral part of Buddhist monastic education.

Goals

ETSI strives to have a comprehensive science curriculum in place as an integral part of monastic education within major academic monastic institutions by 2013. ETSI aims to establish the material and human resources as well as the appropriate pedagogy by way of creating a 5-year preliminary program for a select body of students. ETSI plans to conduct its first series of courses for the preliminary program in the summer of 2008. The ETSI comprehensive program is designed to raise the scientific literacy of the students to approximately that of an individual in the United States who has completed a typical liberal arts college degree in the humanities or other disciplines outside of the sciences. In order to provide a foundation for progressive dialogues between the monastic and scientific communities, advanced classes will be made available for those students who show exceptional skill and ongoing interest. In this way, a small percentage of students will be able to attain a high enough degree of proficiency to participate in genuine research, work in science labs, etc.