The Antiquities Advisory Board (AAB) of Hong Kong has designated two Buddhist temples—Tung Lin Kok Yuen (TLKY) Temple on Hong Kong Island and Yeung Hau Temple on Lantau Island—as monuments under the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance, along with a Christian landmark—Kowloon Union Church.

For the past three years, Buddhism has been the fastest-growing religion among prisoners in Scottish prisons. Data recently obtained via a Freedom of Information request, shows that 22 prisoners registered their religion as Buddhism in the past three years.

The first challenge I encountered during the first year of my monastic training as a postulant was overcoming the discomfort from the clothes we wore. We had a special uniform—a long-sleeved, loose grey midi robe with long pants. In the winter, we could put on more layers inside and a black coat while outside. But in the hot summer, even when it was over 35ºC (about 95ºF, but it felt like 100ºF due to the humidity), we still needed to wear our uniform day and night without air conditioning. This was really too much for me, especially after I had become so used to the comfortable weather in the Westwood/Santa Monica area of California. We were sweating all the time—it felt like our bodies were soaking in salty water. It was even worse during morning/evening services and chanting ceremonies because we were required to wear another black maxi robe with long sleeves. I could not imagine how I would tolerate the habit after ordination, which has the additional layer of a long-sleeved maxi robe and long grey tube socks. Because of this, I also felt sympathy for Roman Catholic nuns!

SEATTLE—In response to the growing communal violence in Myanmar, where the vast majority of the population identifies as Buddhists, a number of American Buddhist teachers have issued an open letter to members of the country’s government, including Myanmar’s de-facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. The letter bore the names of more than 70 teachers, as of 15 September. On 20 September, the letter’s author, Alan Senauke, vice-abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center said, “Over the weekend I will print and mail our joint letter in support of rights and aid for [Myanmar’s] Rohingya peoples. There is still time to send me your names as signatories.”

In a remote village in Hue, central Vietnam, Ha Len’s parents only wish was for their daughter to have surgery for her cleft palate so that she could look like the other children. But it is something they could never afford. And even if Ha Len received the surgery, they knew that she might not live long anyway—by some cruel twist of fate, in addition to a completely cleft lip and palate, Ha Len was born with a congenital malformation of the heart known as Tetralogy of Fallot that left her heart with four anatomical abnormalities that hindered the normal flow of blood to the lungs, resulting in a blue tint to the skin and lips. Although a palliative shunting procedure was performed when she was very young, Ha Len still had “blue lips,” but because of the severity of her conditions, even charity surgical teams from Europe and the United States had declined to attempt a permanent surgical correction of her heart.

While many people have expressed concerns about fighting addiction with medication and counseling, Noah Levine, “a tattooed, gold-toothed, punk-loving Buddhist from Santa Cruz” and counterculture Buddhist teacher, has introduced an alternative approach to combating addiction that draws on the Buddhist practices of mindfulness and meditation. His approach, called Refuge Recovery, is gaining ground in the United States (and in other countries), with centers across the nation, albeit in a strictly non-theistic form. (Valley News)

Panyaden International School in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, is constructed entirely out of earth and bamboo. The inspiration behind the school's buildings is drawn from nature, and the earth-and-bamboo structures are designed with a profound respect for nature and the Buddhist values that also inform the curriculum of the school.

The hills of rural Montana are not the first place one might go to find a sprawling Buddhist peace garden. But that is exactly what you will come upon if you turn east on White Coyote Road from Route 93 between Missoula and Kalispell, just north of Arlee on the Flathead Indian Reservation. After a short drive along that road you will see first a giant structure holding a statue (Tib: Yum Chenmo, Skt: Prajnaparamita; the Great Mother of Transcendent Wisdom), and then eight rows of white molded Buddhas stretching out from her, forming an eight-spoked Dharma wheel. As you park and approach on foot, you will find a variety of other statues, ponds, flowers (depending on the season), and inspirational quotations.

Researchers in Japan’s Osaka Prefecture have unearthed new archealogical evidence of ancient structures that they believe point to the existance of a fabled “second” capital city dating to the 8th century. The find at the Higashi-Yuge archaeological site in the city of Yao, comes six months after the discovery of the foundations of an ancient Buddhist temple thought to be Yuge-ji, a temple built by a powerful Buddhist monk named Dōkyō (c. 700–72) in the 8th century. The latest discovery seems to point to the existence of a mysterious second capital known as Yuge-no-miya, supposedly built during the late Nara period (710–84) by the Empress Shōtoku  (r. 764–70).

A group of researchers from the Science for Monks project and Kent State University have been measuring the brain activity of Buddhist monks engaged in monastic debates. The research, which took place from 29 July–12 August at Sera Jey Monastic University in Bylakuppe, India, used electroencephalograph (EEG) technology to measure neural oscillation in the brain as the monks engaged in serious debates on topics ranging from emptiness to cosmology.