4 - The Networked University: Tibetan Buddhist Spaces in Contemporary India

In this paper, I will examine the Buddhist-based university in India as the site of convergence of three forms of Buddhism which I call popular, political and academic Buddhism. Popular Buddhism subsumes everyday ties between Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and lay communities. Academic Buddhism, as the academic study of Buddhism, manifests in university spaces, learned societies, and international scholarly collaborations. Political Buddhism in India is different from other countries where it may manifest as Buddhist nationalism. In India, where Buddhists are a minority, the political manifests in a different way, aligning with objectives and policies of the Indian civilizational state, which sponsors festivals, cultural programmes and universities/associations promoting Buddhist traditions. I focus on non-monastic institutes set up after the exile and resettlement of high-ranking Tibetan Buddhist leaders in India. Formed in the 1960s through the support of the Indian state, these institutes offer bachelors and masters, certificate and diploma courses, and sometimes doctoral degrees in Buddhist philosophy. Based on my study of the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies (CIHTS) in Sarnath, Central Institute of Buddhist Studies (CIBS) in Ladakh, and the relatively new Central Institute of Himalayan Culture Studies (CIHCS) in Arunachal Pradesh, I demonstrate how the (Tibetan)Buddhist university is a networked space, in which the three forms of Buddhism come together in capillary fashion.