News & Updates
May 2015 | News
On the 4th and 5th of June, the project and the research group 'Social History of Tibetan Societies' jointly organize a conference, titled Gender Issues in Tibetan Buddhist Societies, 17th-20th Centuries: A Conference in Memory of Anne Chayet.
April 2015 | News
On the 12th of May, Bryan Lowe (Vanderbilt University) will give a guest lecture, titled Ghastly Hauntings and Divine Justice: A New Approach to Ritual, Ethics and Kingship in Ancient Japanese Buddhism.
March 2015 | News
On the 9th of April, Jeannine Bischoff (University of Bonn) will give a guest lecture, titled To the feet of the leader of the two systems, the precious preserver of the law: Aspects of Life of Monastic Dependent Peasants in pre-1959 Tibet.
March 2015 | News
On the 31st of March, project member Berthe Jansen will give a guest lecture at Ghent University, titled Crime and Punishment in Buddhist Monasteries in Pre-modern Tibet.
March 2015 | News
On the 24th of February, project member Berthe Jansen successfully defended her PhD dissertation. On our Previous Events page you can find the photos that were made during the ceremony and the workshop that was organized on the occasion of her defense.
February 2015 | News
On the 24th of February, the project organizes a workshop titled Between Tibetan Monasticism and Society on the occasion of the PhD defence of project member Berthe Jansen.
December 2014 | News
On 11 and 12 December a workshop titled Just Buddhists? will be organized in cooperation with the project at SOAS.
November 2014 | News
On December 5th Ann Heirman (Ghent University) will give a talk at IIAS, titled From the cleanliness to the purity: bodily care in Buddhist monasteries from India to China.
November 2014 | News
On November 28th Berthe Jansen (Leiden University) will give a guest lecture at the Oriental Institute of Oxford, titled Where Buddhism meets Tibetan social policy: Monastic Guidelines (bca’ yig) in pre-modern Tibet.
September 2014 | News
Please find the conference photographs online, to be viewed on the Buddhism and Social Justice Conference page.
September 2014 | News
On September 16th Dennis Hirota (Ryukyoku University) will give a talk at IIAS, titled Shinran and The Sutra of Immeasurable Life: the Buddhist Thinker as Reader.
April 2014 | News
Our conference Buddhism and Social Justice from 23-25 April was a great success. We hope to share some resources and photographs in the near future! Our sincere thanks again to all participants and guests.
March 2014 | News
Please find the info about our upcoming international conference on Buddhism and Social Justice, 23-25 April 2014 here!
February 2014 | News
Resources available on
Chinese Buddhism and the Scholarship of Erik Zürcher: A Conference
20-12 | News
On January 16, Dr Michael Radich (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand) will give the lecture "The Authorship and Provenance of the Chapters of the Suvarṇa[pra]bhāsa Ascribed to Paramartha, and Implications for the History of Buddhist Texts"
This lecture is jointly organized by IIAS and Buddhism & Social Justice. More information...
Venue: conference room at IIAS (Rapenburg 59)
Date & Time: Thursday 16 January from 15.00 - 17.00.
5-12 | News
Our PhD candidate Berthe Jansen will be giving a talk titled Monk-tax? Three Different Meanings of Grwa khral
at the conference When the Taxman Cometh
Tax, Corvée and Community Obligations in Tibetan Societies. For more information, see the programme here.
22-08 | News
Our CfP has been extended to 20 September. Please see the Home page for all info!
A One-year Post-doctoral Fellow Position has opened in our team. Apply following the vacancy.
15-05 | News
Venerable Dr. Yifa will give a talk titled "The Current State of Buddhism in China" on Friday May 24, from 15.00 - 16.30 in the Green Room in the Arsenaal.
11-04 | News
Berthe Jansen will give a lecture titled "How to Tame a Wild Monastic Elephant: Drepung Monastery According to the Great Fifth"
at a conference in Bonn, Recapturing the Tibetans who escaped the Historian’s net (May 27 - 28, 2013)

10-01 | News
The project members of Buddhism and Social Justice wish you a happy 2013!

We are also proud to announce the first event of the new year.
SIB Lecture | January 14, 2013
Tensions in Tibet
Speaker: Berthe Jansen
Time: 20.00
Venue: Hereweg 1, Leiden
Berthe Jansen will speak on Tibet at the SIB (Studentenvereniging voor Internationale Betrekkingen)on January 14th.
30-11| News
Kabul Institute of Archaeology & IIAS Lecture | Tuesday 11 December
Recent excavations of the Buddhist remains from Mes Aynak, Afghanistan
Speaker: Mr Khair Mohammed Khairzada & Dr. Willem
Vogelsang
Time: 15.15
Venue: Gravensteen room 111, Leiden, the Netherlands
Since the early nineteenth century, Afghanistan has become known for its Buddhist sites that date back to the early centuries of the modern era. Most famous of all are, or better, were, the two giant Buddha statues in Bamiyan, which were destroyed by the Taliban regime in the spring of 2001. But all over the country, and especially in the east, Buddhist stupas and other remains still crown many hilltops. Read more...
29-11 | News
Two Lectures Buddhism in Central Asia: Visual Evidence for History | Friday 7 December
Lecture by Anna Filigenzi
Buddha, Monks and Lay Devotees: the Buddhist rhetoric of power in Late Antique Afghanistan
Lecture by Meiji Yamada
Buddhism and the Sakas: Nomads of Central Asia in Greek, Persian, Indian, and Chinese Sources
Time: 13.00 - 16.00
Venue: Lipsius Room 228, Cleveringaplaats 4, Leiden
22-11 | News
IIAS Lecture | Thursday 6 December
Lecture by Cristina Pecchia
A dharma to be proved: Texts from the Indian Buddhist epistemological tradition
Time: 15.15- 17.00
Venue: Room 1.48, Lipsius Building, Leiden
26-10 | News
Lecture | Friday 2 November
Lecture by Prof. Jinhua Chen
Indianized or Localized: Borderland Complex and the Transmission of Buddhism in East Asia
Time: 15.00 - 17.00
Venue: Lipsius Room 307, Cleveringaplaats 4, Leiden
07-09 | News
Numata Professor Yamada Meiji will teach two courses on Buddhism at Leiden University
BA course Religious Studies "The transformation of Buddhism across Central Asia from India to China"
MA course Religious Studies "The Way of Tea, the Way of the Buddha"
15-06 | News
Lecture at Erasmus University | Wednesday 20 June
a historical perspective on Buddhism and Economics
Our PhD candidate Berthe Jansen will give a lecture at Erasmus University's Conference on Buddhism & Economics next week. More info...
Time: 14.00-17.30
Venue: Erasmus University Rotterdam, Woudestein Campus, Senaats-zaal A-building
11-06 | News
Foreign Lecture | Tuesday 19 June
Dynastic ideology and the development of the Bodhisattva path
Our post-doctoral fellow Vincent Tournier will give a lecture in Vienna next week.
Time: 18.00
Venue: Seminar room 1, Department of Art History, University Campus Vienna
07-06 | News
Lecture | Friday 15 June
The Limits of Compassion: Reflections on the ethics of inequality in Bodhicaryāvatāra chapters 6 & 8
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Luis O. Gómez
Time: 11.00
Venue: Lipsius Building room 148, Leiden University Campus
23-05 | News
Lecture | Thursday 31 May
On the Indian Literary Genres of Female Authorship: Sādhana, Stotra, Vidhi, Upadeśa, Pañjika, Siddhi, and Paddhati
Speaker: Gonda Fellow Dr. Ulrich Timme Kragh
Time: 15.00 (we start on time: no Leidse kwartiertje!)
Venue: Lipsius Building room 130, Leiden University Campus
23-05-2012 | News
Wednesday 30 May | PhD defence by Vincent Breugem
Supervisor: Wim Boot.
From Prominence to Obscurity
A Study of the Darumashū: Japan’s First Zen School

03-02-2012 | News
We would like to wish everyone a happy 2012. A big welcome to our new colleagues in the Project! Updates will follow soon.
28-11 | News
IIAS Lecture | Thursday 1 December
Speaking of the individual: the work of Prakāśātman and the beginnings of a theory of language in classical Advaita-Vedānta
Hugo David (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Section des sciences religieuses, is a Gonda Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS)
Time: 17.00-18.00 hrs.
Venue: Lipsius Building, room 235B, Cleveringaplaats 1, Leiden
More information
18-11 | News
IIAS Lecture | Friday 25 November 2011
Carrying the Load. Philological and Doctrinal Remarks on the Bharaharasutra
Professor Vincent Eltschinger (Research Fellow in the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia in the Austrian Academy of Sciences Vienna)
Time: 16.00-17.30 hrs.
Venue: IIAS, Conference Room, Rapenburg 59, 2311 GJ Leiden
27-10 | News

IIAS Lecture | Friday 4 November 2011
Mantra Method or Vajra Vehicle: On the self-perception of Indian Tantric Buddhism
Professor Harunaga Isaacson (Classical Indology, Hamburg University)
Time: 16.00-17.30 hrs.
Venue: IIAS, Conference Room, Rapenburg 59, 2311 GJ Leiden
More information
In the past months we have altered and updated the site in various ways. Please feel free to contact us with any feedback.
09-09 | News
The info on the Numata talks has been updated. Also, the information on the Studium Generale Lecture Series "Social Justice. Just How?" has been added.
15-07 | Update
We have added the programme and extra information on this year's Numata Professor, Vincent Eltschinger.
0-07 | Update
We have added an RSS Feed to the website. Please save it to your RSS reader for all our latest news!
17-06 | News
On July 1st the International Institute for Asian Studies will host Presenting Tibet: Celebrating the Contributions of E. Gene Smith to Tibetan Studies in Leiden.
28-04 | Update
Added: the page "Buddhist Studies at Leiden University"
14-04-2011 | News
Professor Jonathan Silk will speak at the Buddhist Festival in Leiden on Sunday May 29th.
See our Events page for more information on the talk
See our Buddhist Studies at Leiden University page for more information on the festival, organized by
Suiren-Ji Zen Center (www.zencentrum.nl)

01-04-2011 | News
Buddhism and Social Justice PhD Candidate Berthe Jansen will be giving a talk on May 19th.
01-04-2011 | News
Open positions: BaSJ is taking PhD and Post-Doc applications! |
Click here for more information
or view the PDF (16,9 Kb, right-click and select 'Save as' to download)
31-03-2011 | News
Version 1.1 of the site is online!
Contact information:
Buddhism & Social Justice
Postal address
P.O. Box 9515
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
Email Contact
J.A.Silk@hum.leidenuniv.nl