Location:

New Delhi, India

Program Type:

Study Abroad

Degree Level:

Undergraduate

Term:

Spring Semester

Program Overview

Program Description:

Students begin this program at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics (IBD) Sarah campus, a small Tibetan college where they take courses taught by Emory and IBD faculty, including Tibetan Culture and Civilization, Buddhist Philosophy and Practice, and Tibetan Language (101, 102, and 201 are available). Here they live for six weeks with Tibetan roommates and forge friendships with some of the exile community’s most impressive young scholars, many of whom have escaped from Tibet. The program then moves up the mountain to McLeod Ganj (\"Upper Dharamsala\"), home to the Dalai Lama, the Central Tibetan Administration, and numerous Tibetan exile organizations and religious centers. Here our students take classes for six weeks at the Upper IBD campus, which is famous for its advanced philosophical training. They also live with Tibetan families, volunteer, do internships, meet with leading religious leaders and scholarly experts, and participate in Hindu and Buddhist holidays (including the Tibetan New Year, Losar). In previous years, the students have also had a special class with Emory’s Distinguished Presidential Professor, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The program concludes with three weeks of supervised research on a Tibetan Studies-related topic of the student’s choice.

Situated in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas and home to the XIV Dalai Lama, Dharamsala is the capital of the Tibetan exile community. Within this remarkably beautiful, culturally rich, transnational environment, Emory University and its partner, the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics (IBD), weave together rigorous academic study, language training, field research, cultural immersion, and contemplative practice in order to provide a unique semester-long program for students interested in both India and Tibet. Classes, which are taught by both Emory and IBD faculty, include: Tibetan Culture and Civilization, Buddhist Philosophy and Practice, Tibetan Language, and Independent Research: Selected Topics.

Fees include tuition, full room and board, all field trips and related fares, health and accident insurance, and other program-related expenses. Participants pay for international airfare, non-program related travel in India, visas, inoculations, books, and all personal items.

Setting Description:

The Institute of Buddhist Dialectics' Sarah campus is located at the base of the Himalayas, in the peaceful, verdant Kangra Valley. This lovely location, with its views of 18,000-foot, snow-peaked mountains, enables students to interact not only with the 300 Tibetan and Himalayan students living at IBD Sarah but also members of the local Indian community. Moreover, students enjoy the area’s stunning beauty during strolls with their roommates, and learn about its rich artistic history through trips to nearby archeological and religious sites. The small town of McLeod Ganj, the program’s second location, is located ten miles up the mountain from IBD Sarah at around 7,000 feet. The cultural and political capital of the Tibetan exile community for over fifty years, this small hamlet has recently become a bustling, multi-ethnic, transnational town. While here, students enjoy taking fieldtrips to and often working with exile organizations, such as Tibetan Children’s Village schools, the Ti