Namgyal Monastery Institute of Buddhist Studies incorporates two institutions: (1) the North American Seat of

Namgyal Monastery Namgyal Monastery () (also often referred to as "Dalai Lama's Temple") is currently located in Mcleod Ganj, Dharamsala, India. It is the personal monastery of the 14th Dalai Lama. Another name for this temple-complex is Namgyal Tantric Colleg ...

; and (2) a

Tibetan Buddhist Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

theological Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the s ...

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy ...

affiliated with it. The two institutions share a dharma center in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named ...

. The

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...

is their patron, the highest authority (for the former), and consultant (for the latter). "Namgyal" (rNam rGyal) is the Tibetan name of a long-life deity.

The North American Seat of Namgyal Monastery

Namgyal Monastery (Ithaca) is a branch of the personal monastery of the

, also called

. It therefore belongs to the

Gelugpa 240px, The 14th Dalai Lama (center), the most influential figure of the contemporary Gelug tradition, at the 2003 Bodhgaya (India). The Gelug (, also Geluk; "virtuous")Kay, David N. (2007). ''Tibetan and Zen Buddhism in Britain: Transplantati ...

monastic order. Traditionally located within the

Potala Palace The Potala Palace is a ''dzong'' fortress in Lhasa, Tibet. It was the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas from 1649 to 1959, has been a museum since then, and a World Heritage Site since 1994. The palace is named after Mount Potalaka, the mythic ...

, and charged with various ritual tasks connected with the Dalai Lama, the parent monastery in 1959 relocated to Dharamsala along with the Tibetan exile government. Monks from Dharamsala are rotated in and out of the Ithaca branch, with about five in residence there at any one time. They are one of several groups which send teams of Tibetan monks on tour to construct

sand mandala Sand mandala (; ) is a Tibetan Buddhist tradition involving the creation and destruction of mandalas made from colored sand. Once complete, the sand mandala's ritualistic dismantling is accompanied by ceremonies and viewing to symbolize Budd ...

Namgyal Institute of Buddhist Studies

The institute was founded in 1992, on the advice of the Dalai Lama. The major organizer was Sidney Piburn, former middleweight boxer and editor/co-founder of Snow Lion Publications (and Piburn is named as the Institute's "founder" on the cover of several books). Namgyal's website names the late Pema Losang Chogyen—a monk associated with the early days of the institute—as its "inspiration." Namgyal Institute offers a three-year program emphasizing

Tibetan language Tibetan language may refer to: * Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard * Lhasa Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dialect * Any of the other Tibetic languages See also * Old Tibetan, the languag ...

Buddhist philosophy Buddhist philosophy refers to the philosophical investigations and systems of inquiry that developed among various schools of Buddhism in India following the parinirvana of The Buddha and later spread throughout Asia. The Buddhist path combin ...

, and

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...

practice. It does not award degrees. (Its administrators contemplated offering a "Master of Sutra and Tantra" degree, but this is the same degree awarded by the parent monastery for thirteen years of study.) The core program was designed in part by the Dalai Lama, and aimed at Western dharma practitioners. Though oriented towards the

school, Namgyal is "nonsectarian" in the sense of being open to non-Gelug lineages. The teachers are drawn partly from the Namgyal monks, and partly from visiting teachers (including many well-known scholars in the field of

Buddhist Studies Buddhist studies, also known as Buddhology, is the academic study of Buddhism. The term ''Buddhology'' was coined in the early 20th century by the Unitarian minister Joseph Estlin Carpenter to mean the "study of Buddhahood, the nature of the Budd ...

). There are part-time as well as full-time students, and many activities are ones which could be found at almost any dharma center, such as pujas,

dharma talk A Dharma talk (Sanskrit) or Dhamma talk (Pali) or Dharma sermon (''Japanese'': , ''Chinese'': ) is a public discourse on Buddhism by a Buddhist teacher. In Theravāda Buddhism, the study of Buddhist texts and listening to Dhamma talks by monks o ...

s, workshops,

retreats The meaning of a spiritual retreat can be different for different religious communities. Spiritual retreats are an integral part of many Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian and Sufi communities. In Hinduism and Buddhism, meditative retreats are ...

, and short courses. The institute was formerly housed in a Victorian house on Aurora Street, but has since constructed a Tibetan-style temple complex, called ''Dü Khor Choe Ling'' (dus 'khor chos gling, "

Kalachakra ''Kālacakra'' () is a polysemic term in Vajrayana Buddhism that means " wheel of time" or "time cycles". "''Kālacakra''" is also the name of a series of Buddhist texts and a major practice lineage in Indian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism. The ...

Center"). A number of books from Snow Lion Publications bear the label "A Namgyal Institute Textbook."

External links

Official siteParent monastery in Dharamsala
{{Authority control Asian-American culture in New York (state) Buildings and structures in Ithaca, New York Tibetan Buddhist organizations Tibetan Buddhism in the United States