Varanasi: Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies, Banaras Hindu University, on Thursday signed an MoU with Light of Buddhadharma Foundation (LBDFI) to promote collaboration in research and education related to Buddhist Studies and allied disciplines.The agreement was signed in the presence of Vice-Chancellor Prof Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi and Wangmo Dixey, LBDFI. Light of Buddhadharma Foundation is an organisation devoted to revival and preservation of Buddhist culture and heritage in India, sacred land of Buddha.
Both institutions will work together to develop educational and community-based programmes, undertake joint research projects, share relevant academic inputs and facilitate exchange of faculty members, researchers and students. They will also collaborate on teaching and research initiatives.The cooperation will cover a range of disciplines and interdisciplinary areas, including Buddhist Philosophy and Culture, Buddhist Studies, Abhidhamma and Buddhist Psychology and other related fields of common interest.Both institutions agreed to collaborate as official partners in organising conferences on Buddhist heritage and pilgrimage and to promote joint research on Buddhist pilgrimage traditions across India, especially at sites where organised pilgrimage activities take place.The collaboration will focus on relationship between the Living Canon and the Academic Canon. BHU faculty members and graduate students will document, annotate and academically contextualise International Tipi aka Chanting traditions, including Pali phonetics, chanting lineages and textual variations.The institutions will jointly support research initiatives and scholars undertaking specialised academic studies in Pali and Buddhist Studies.
