Tibetan Science Conclave

11 - 14th Dec 2010, Delhi

Dedicated to His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama

by

Tibetan Scientific Society

Report

It is our genuine pleasure to announce that Tibetan Scientific Society (TS2) has successfully organized a four day (December 11 to 14, 2010) conclave entitled -Tibetan Science Con-clave at Tibetan Youth Hostel, Delhi. The conclave was attended by more than 55 Tibetan science students who are studying in different colleges in India. Most of them are under-graduates from places like Delhi, Uttarakhand, Mysore, Chennai, Chandigarh and Banga-lore. The warmth of hospitality shown by the staff and students at Tibetan youth hostel made our venue a most memorable one beside its proper accommodation and a great aca-demic ambience. The conclave was first of its kind and it is mainly for the Tibetan students at undergraduate level who are yet to explore the different horizons of scientific world and its significance in the development of a society and the world at large. Keeping in mind the lack of aware-ness and an inspiration in a much needed society like ours, the conference was set to have high impact. It was for four days with each day having its own theme that is related to one’s own career and society. Despite the conclave being first of its kind and its inexperi-ence organizers, we are still funded by many different individuals and organization for which we remain in debt thankful. We also thank our speakers at TSC such as Nobel Laure-ate Prof. Richard R. Ernst, Ven. Karma Gelek Yuthok, Secretary of D.O.E. (C.T.A.), Professor Emeritus, R. Rajaraman (JNU) and his colleague Prof. Deepak Kumar for their highly inspira-tional lectures in the midst of their hectic schedule. Besides, the participants are over-whelmed by their presence that they have heard of but never got to see them in real. Moreover, we were proud to introduce some of our own Tibetan Research Scholars who are working in reputed Institution and University. Their talk on their field subject tends to inspire many participants whom they are looking forward to excel in the respective field. In our personal opinion, that was the most important part of the conclave as it sets out who they are and how they stood out considering them as one among us. Therefore it hap-pened to be our participant’s one of finest encounter and inspiration as per feedback we received post conclave. Since the conclave been centrally put on its significance of modern research and develop-ment, we managed to discover its relation to our own religion and culture through a won-derful ongoing project called Science meets Dharma (SmD). It was briefed for us by Geshe Nyima Tashi, SmD Coordinator. The research into integration of scientific inquiry and Bud-dhist philosophy is sprouting. And our role in widening its horizon is what we feel as a ne-cessity for being a Tibetan with a scientific background. Perhaps our participants would someday make a bit of its contribution and work together. Finally our role as convener would like to thank all participants for making this event a suc-cessful one and inspire us to set forward a better and higher standard for future. On top, with profound sense of gratitude, we wish to record our sincerest appreciation on behalf of Tibetan Scientific Society to all the concerned individual and organization for their kind support and hope will bless us forever. Tenzin Nyibum & Dr. Kalsang Tharpa, Convenor, Tibetan Science Conclave

Message from Convener

Tibetan Science Conclave-A report

Tibetan scientific society or TS2 is a non-profitable and non-governmental organization founded by group of Tibetan science students. The primary goal of TS2 is to promote scientific understanding among our community. From the recent educational survey conducted by TS2 in seven major cities in India, we learnt that there are very few number of Tibetans involved in higher studies in science including post-graduate and research. On the other hand, the sur-vey also shows large number of students pursuing undergraduate courses in science. This prompted TS2 to hold a conclave intended for undergraduate stu-dents by involving post-graduate/researchers/professionals in science. Major objective of the con-clave was to inspire and to inform about the career

leading to post-graduation studies or research to undergraduate science students. Besides, the con-clave also included introduction to ongoing Science-Buddhism project and panel discussion on career of a Tibetan scientist within our community. Basically, the venue and the date of the conclave (11-14 December, 2011, Tibetan Youth Hostel, Delhi) were formulated as per the convenience of our chief guest Professor Richard R. Ernst, a recipient of 1991 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The conversation between Professor Richard R. Ernst and TS2 was made feasible through Mr. Kalsang Chokteng (project manager, Science meets Dharma) and Geshe Nyima Tashi of Sera Jhe Monastery.

Formulation of conclave’s program Four months Prior to the conclave, the members of TS2 had gathered frequently to formulate feasible and ef-fective program for the conclave. Upon finalizing all the ideas, we decided to hold conclave for four days and hence following programs had been shaped:

Invitation of scientists/researchers to share their scientific understandings and experiences. Involvement of young Tibetan researchers in the field of science. A Tibetan administrator or educationist to address the students about ‘science’ in our community. A visit to a scientific institute of repute at Delhi. Career options for science graduates by a counselor. An update on ‘Tibetan Buddhism-Science’ collaborative project. To hold poster presentation on science by the participants. Panel discussion among the participants and speakers on issues such as- scarcity of Tibetan science

teachers and professionals. Screening of science inspiring movies after the dinner.

For more detail, the program list of TSC is attached with this report.

Introduction

Preparation

Four months prior to the conclave, we received Prof. Richard R. Ernst’s confirmation to address Tibetan science students and hence our preparation for the conclave began from that day. Initially, we had two big concerns needed to be addressed. They are- the availability of the participants and appropriate fund-ing for the conclave. With much confidence and high expectations, we simultaneously started enrollment of the participants as well as searching for potential fund providers. TS2 had decided to raise fund for 30 participants for attending the conclave by train (II class sleeper) and daily allowance during their stay at Delhi. The venue was fixed at Tibetan youth hostel, Rohini, Delhi. The immediate response, concern and interest shown by Mr. Karma Thinley, director of Tibetan

youth hos-tel, boosted our confi-dence. TS2 was well informed by Mr. Karma Thinley about the accommo-dation, meals, hall and their charges. The members of TS2 paid a visit to the venue two months prior to the date of the con-clave and actualized all necessary arrangements/requirements. We have attempted to reach every Tibetan science

TS2 executive meeting college students

students in India about the upcoming Tibetan sci-ence conclave through personal contacts, text mes-sages and advertisement. In the month of October 2010, members of the TS2 met Tibetan science stu-dents at Mysore, Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi, and gave introduction to TS2 as well as about the con-clave. Any students who were interested in becom-ing a member of the society and willing to attend the workshop on the stipulated date were asked to sub-mit the form duly filled to the society within a given period of time. All the students were informed that only 30 participants will be funded for the conclave and they were asked to fill the questionnaires framed by members of TS2. The selection of 30 par-ticipants was solely based on their response to the questions which reflects their interest. Meanwhile TS2 members were also approaching po-tential donors for the conclave. Raising fund for the conclave was not always encouraging yet we re-ceived spontaneous and motivational response from TSC funders whose details are mentioned in the ac-knowledgement. We have not approach office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for the fund. The preparation for TSC also included invitation of chief guest, scientists, Tibetan administrator, career counselor and lecturer on Tibetan Buddhism. All invi-

tations were done through e-mail. None of the invit-ees knows about TS2 yet they gave importance to our initiatives and their instantaneous replies had brought great hope. Some speakers got cancelled at the last moment or some could not accept our invita-tion due to unavoidable circumstances nevertheless we received their invaluable message through video recording which we had screened on the first day of the conclave. Getting a permission to visit a science institute was thought to be the most difficult task. Firstly, the TS2 is not a well known association and secondly TS2 do not have permanent office to be called as its address. We wished to take our participants to Jawarhalal Nehru University (JNU). Fortunately, the department heads of physical science, life science and biotech-nology of JNU showed great interest in our visit and they accepted our proposal without many formali-ties. The conclave kits including file, notepad, pen, batch and brochure were arranged. The gift for the speak-ers consists of pen and a pen stand both engraved as ‘Tibetan Scientific Society’. The participants were informed to present a poster presentation at TSC on the subject or topics of their choice.

During our initial days, Geshe Dorji Damdul, deputy director of Tibet House, Delhi chapter, has given practical suggestions and he is directly involved in inviting some of the speakers for the conclave. Ven. Karma Gelek Yuthok, Secretary, Department of Education, Dharamasala, was invited as our chief guest. Prof. R. Rajaraman, theoretical physics, Emeri-tus professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University was invited as our chief guest. At the last moment, due to inevitable circumstances, Prof. R. Rajamraman had to cancel our invitation. Thereafter, Prof. Deepak Kumar, Physics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, was invited. Beside very hectic schedules of both our chief guests, they have given importance to our invi-tation and attended our conclave.

In order to give insight into the work of Prof. Richard R. Ernst for which he received Nobel Prize in Chemis-try, we invited Prof. Deewan S., an NMR spectro-scopist of Delhi University. We also invitated Dr. Dawa Dorji of Delhi University, Dr. Tenzin Kyizom, senior demonstrator at University college of Medical Sciences and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Delhi; Mrs. Tenzin Choedon, a research associate at Inter-national center for Genetic Enggenring and Biotech-nology; Mr. Gyaltsen Jamyang, Education officer, Department of Education and Mr. Jamyang Wangyal, south zone career counselor. Meanwhile we were receiving participant’s applica-tions for the conclave. The members of TS2 booked train tickets for participants from Mysore, Bangalore and Chennai. The participants from Baroda, Chandhi-garh and Ajmeer were requested to book their own travel tickets which were later reimbursed. On 7 December, 2010, the executive members of TS2 arrived at Tibetan Youth Hostel, Delhi. The executive members along with the volunteers made all ar-rangements for the conclave. The officials at Tibetan Youth Hostel gave great cooperation. All participants were received on 10 December. The host partici-pants have shown immense hospitality and helped all other participants of their needs. All the partici-pants were given detail instruction about the disci-pline followed at Tibetan Youth Hostel by the host director.

Execution

Decorating the conclave Hall-eve of conclave

Firstly, we arranged a participant registration desk at the entrance of the hall for all non-registered par-ticipants. Free registration was done for all inter-ested participants. All participants were given a pa-per file, notepad, pen, program schedule and a batch for identification. We received our chief guests Ven. Karma Gelek Yuthok and Prof. Deepak Kumar at the gate. They were given brief and informal introduction to Ti-betan youth hostel by host director Mr. Karma Thinley, before inviting them to the dais. Mr. Chime Tsetan led the session by formally welcoming our chief guests. Mr. Tenzin Nyibum gave brief introduc-tion about our chief guests. Mr. Tenzin Pasang intro-duced TS2 to the chief guests and participants in gen-eral, followed by Mr. Kalsang Tharpa’s introduction to TSC and its aims and objectives. Mr. Karma Thinley formally welcomes our chief guests and participants. He gave a brief speech on the importance of such conclave and its impact in student’s life in general. Prof. Deepak Kumar intro-duced his love for the subject and difficulties he had faced at the beginning of career as a scientist. His

talk was directive and so inspiring to all of us. Ven. Karma Gelek Yuthok, an experienced educationist in our community, appreciated TS2 for organizing TSC which he emphasized it to be need of an hour in our community. He gave comprehensive speech in Ti-betan on past, present and future scenario of educa-tion system in-exile. After the inauguration session, the chief guests and participants were invited for a high tea at hostel’s beautiful and spacious lawn. There was informal in-teraction between the participants and chief guests on diverse topics. Soon the next session was re-sumed. The session was headed by Mr. Tenzin Desal and it was intended to bring familiarization among the participants. All the participants gave their self-introduction one by one, expressing their interests in respective science subject. This gave the individuals to match their interest of subject with the other par-ticipants. The session was informative, full of fun and indeed a fruitful.

DAY ONE

Opening function - chief guests Ven. Karma Gelek Yuthok and Prof. Deepak Kumar,Karma Thiley, director, TCV Youth Hostel , Tenzin Pasang,TS2 secretary and Dr. Kal-sang Tharpa, Conclave Convener during the function.

A interactive session - Conclave was kick started by knowing each other

Afternoon session with Dr. Dawa Dorjee. A Scientist at Delhi University

After the lunch break, there were four technical ses-sions on topic on research and development in sci-ence. A talk on ‘Introduction to research’ was given by Mr. Kalsang Tharpa. The next session was taken over by Dr. Dawa Dorji. He gave a brief introduction to his research work and his career as a researcher. He highlighted the various fellowships available for the researchers. Both the talks were concluded with question and answer session before the conclave took a much needed tea break. After the break, we had Dr. Tenzin Kyizom to share her research inter-est. She forced our participants to interact with her unlike traditional unidirectional speech. The dinner was hosted at the hostel’s dinning hall. The food was homely with a typical Tibetan taste. Thereafter, a science inspiring movie entitled “October sky” was screened. The movie is based on true life story of a coal miner son’s passion for rocket building and the hardships he endured to secure a position at NASA.

The temperature at Delhi was dropping day by day. The participants were found sipping hot tea at the

hostel’s canteen prior to their breakfast which serves at 7:30 to 8:30 am. Soon our session entitled “Introduction to Spectroscopy” by Mr. Tenzin Pasang was started. He briefed the participants about the basic underlying principles of spectroscopy and its various types, before concluding with a heated discus-sion among the participants. By the time Geshe Nyima Tashi, Director, Science meets Dharma, India, had already arrived at TSC hall for his talk in the form a review on ‘Mind and Life’ conferences. Geshe la came with well prepared slides on Mind and Life confer-ences together with his own thoughts and conclu-

sions. The participants asked many questions in rela-tion to science and Buddhism, for which the discus-sion was extended even during the tea break. We had two more sessions to go before the lunch break. The first was on career perspective of a Tibetan science student by Mr. Jamyang Wangyal, south zone career counselor, Mundgod. The attractive power point presentation with colorful slides and much needed jokes bought delight among the participants. He emphasized on importance of choosing right ca-reer based on ones own interest. The second was by Fulbright scholar Mr. Jamyang Gyaltsen and science education officer at DoE, Dharamsala. He relates his experience as a teacher at upper TCV and as a Ful-

bright scholar at Colombia University. The topics such as science teaching and learning, statistics of Tibetan science students in various schools, and role of Ti-betan language in learning science were covered in his talk. After the lunch break, the conclave resumed for a group discussion among all participants. The partici-pants were divided into four groups. Firstly, there was a brief introduction on objective of the group discus-sion and the questions that we intend to discuss. Since majority of the participants have completed their schooling from Tibetan schools, the one of the most relevant questions posed were- why there are fewer numbers of Tibetan science teacher in Tibetan

schools? We believed that the answers they had given are based on their day-to-day interaction with the Tibetan community. The followings are the two most common replies we received-

Career stagnation Low salary

The discussion went on with different participants giving feedbacks, points, etc. Each group had pre-sented their views in the form of a chart with the help of one representative. After the dinner, a documentary film entitled “E=mc2” was screened. The world’s most famous equation was most comprehensively presented in this document. A person in a Swiss patient office who imagined travel-ling at the speed of light, none other than Albert Ein-stein, kept our participants highly motivated.

DAY TWO

This was the day most of our participants were wait-ing for because they were really excited to visit sci-ence laboratories at Jawaharlal Nehru University. All

the participants were accommodated in one big bus and we left from the hostel at around 09:00 am. We were welcomed by group of three Tibetan students at JNU and took us to International student union hall. They gave us an overview of JNU and its differ-ent schools to our participants. We first visited school of physical sciences. Prof. Subir Kumar Sarkar, Dean of school of physical sciences invited all the participants to the seminar hall and gave a formal welcome note. Professor divided the visitors into four groups and we were taken into every laboratory in the department. Soon the laboratories are crowded with our participants, posing questions and

seeking explanation from the host. After visiting all the laboratories at the school of physical sciences, our participants headed towards school of biotech-nology. We could not visit school of life sciences be-cause of the ongoing national conference on the same day. Prof. Rajiv Bhat ,the Dean of school of biotechnology JNU ,invited us to the seminar hall. Prof. Rajiv Bhat officially welcomed our participants and gave a com-prehensive definition of biotechnology and its begin-ning in India for nearly 45 minutes. The talk was in-deed enriching and gave an insight into the past, present and future trend of biotechnology. Soon the participants were scattered into different laborato-

ries. The host scientists at the laboratories have shown great patience in explaining the research work they were undertaking. TS2 presented traditional white scarf, wall hanger and a quote by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the deans of school of physical sciences and biotechnol-ogy as a token of gratitude. Both the deans were very encouraging, supportive and readily kept us in comfort. We had our lunch in JNU campus, late in the after-noon. We had small refreshment before resuming our session with Mrs. Tenzin Choedon, Research as-sociate, International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi. Mrs. Tenzin Choedon gave detailed information about the effect of some

of the Tibetan medicines in treating hepatitis B. The results were astonishing and the participants re-ceived a glimpse of therapeutic effects of Tibetan medicine using modern technology. The session was concluded with many questions from the partici-pants. As usual, after the dinner we showed a brief bio-graphical documentary on Prof. Richard R. Ernst. and then to a much exhausted audience, the black and white movie of Charlie Chaplin was screened and hence the day ended with laughter.

DAY THREE

This was a big day for TS2 and the participants of TSC. We are going to meet Prof. Richard R. Ernst, a 1991 Nobel laureate in Chemistry. Our day started with

the poster pres-entation by par-ticipants. Most of the partici-pants had brought poster(s) and they were colorfully displayed. The topics covered in the posters were very diverse. Each participant was given 10 minutes time to present their poster and all shared a light moment of ques-

tion-answer session. Due to time constraint, the pre-senters were left to discuss with other participants during the tea break. Geshe Dorji Damdul’s title of the talk was “points of convergence and divergence between Buddhism and modern science”. Firstly, Geshe la gave brief intro-duction to Buddhist philosophy. He then related its gaining importance in scientific realms and various important points of convergence and divergence between two disciplines. Prof. Diwan S. Rawat, a spectroscopist, Department of Chemistry, Delhi University, gave brief introduc-tion to the principles of various spectroscopic tech-niques and particularly on nuclear magnetic reso-nance (NMR) spectroscopy. The versatility of NMR

spectroscopy was felt as he touched topics ranging from chemical structural elucidation to 3D brain im-aging. And of course there was extended interaction with the participants as questions follows one after another. Lastly, Prof. Diwan S. Rawat appreciated

our initiative and gave valuable information about the admission to Delhi University Hostel as he was the Dean of the hostel. After the lunch break, the participants were in very high spirit and the atmosphere inside the conclave hall was filled with extreme excitement because of Prof. Richard R. Ernst presence. Prof. Richard R. Ernst presented 332 power point slides about his youthful adventure at Winterthur,

about his inspirer Prof. H. Günthard and as a co-worker under Prof. Weston A. Anderson, where he got exposure to Weston’s prayer wheel for recording NMR spectra. That was in the year 1962. By then the problem was cleared to Prof. Richard R. Ernst that

acquiring NMR spectra was a tedious procedure. He set forward to find the solution for it and for which he was successful and as a consequence he was con-ferred Nobel Prize in Chemistry in the year 1991. Professor stated that to travel a road to success, one need two legs. Of course one of his legs is Physical Chemistry and the other is Tibetan thangka painting. His passion for analyzing the chemical compositions of century old Tibetan thangka using Raman spec-troscopy was covered in 2008 Analytical Chemistry journal. During the presentation, Professor gave de-tailed insight into different Thangkas and their com-position he has analyzed. It was made apparent for

DAY FOUR

all of us that for a scientist everything can be scien-tifically interpreted. The later part of his presentation reflects his enthusi-asm in promoting dialogue between science and Buddhism. Short video about on-going science teach-ing by western scientist at Tibetan monastery was shown and encourages participants to involve in such initiatives. The presentation lasted for nearly three and half hours. The professor was standing through out the presentation while participants at-tentively enjoyed one slide to another. At the end, the question and answer session was prolonged for by many interesting interactions. Finally the time had arrived to confer participation certificates to the participants. We requested Prof. Richard R. Ernst to give certificates and in spite of

large number of participants, Professor gave one-to-one certificates to all participants. Moreover, he gave an autograph with a well wishes message on the certificate of every participant. Professor Richard R. Ernst and Geshe Dorji Damdul shared a delightful moment with our participants at the dinning hall as we all had dinner altogether. It was a precious mo-ment of learning for all us in the presence of two highly intellectual people. After the dinner, we all thanked professor for spend-ing time with us and he indeed acknowledges our deep sense of gratitude for coming to Tibetan Sci-ence Conclave. With this, our four days conclave came to an end.

Conclusions TSC is an attempt made by group of young Tibetan students to share the importance of science in our commu-nity, a material philosophy that was once non-accessible to erstwhile isolated Tibet. The conclave was primar-ily designed to ignite scientific thinking among ourselves and to work collectively for the benefit of present Tibetan community as well as a preparation for future self-reliant Tibet. Such conclave will not end here. It is just the beginning. We are looking forward to design as many innovative ideas as to initiate such conclave or workshop to widen the scientific understanding among our community.

Acknowledgement We thank our sponsors whose generous contribution and faith in us(TS2) made Tibetan Science conclave a reality. We would like to thank those individuals who supported this conclave, and without whose assistance the conclave would not have been possible, viz; Gen Karma Thinley, Director, TYH; Geshe Dorji Damdul, Dep-uty Director, Tibet House, New Delhi; Geshe Nyima Tashi and Kalsang Chokteng, SmD.

Sponsor :

-Gen Thupten Wangchen, Director, Tibet house, Barcelona

Co-Sponsor :

- Society of Tibetan Children Village, Dharam-sala -Geshe Tenzin Gyaltsen, Dharamsala -Mrs. Sonam Lhamo, USA -Geshe Jampa Khedup, USA -Kyapje Ling Rinpoche -Geshe Lobsang Wangdue, Sera Jhe Monastry -Mrs. Brunhilde Behr, Germany -TCV 2002 Batch -Geshe Lobsang Samten, Mundgod

Board member of Tibetan Scientific Society with Nobel Laureate Prof. Richard R. Ernst after the successful completion of First ever Tibetan Science Conclave.

Total Donation Received Amount(Rs.)

From Gen Thupten Wangchen 1,00,000.00 From Mrs. Brunhilde Behr 36,060.00 From Jampa Khedup 20,000.00 From Mrs Sonam lhamo 20,000.00 From Geshe Tenzin Gyaltsen 20,000.00 From Geshe Lobsang Wangdu 10,000.00 From Kyapje Ling Rinpoche 10,000.00 From Geshe lobsang Samten 3,000.00 From Mr. Lobsang Dhargyal 2,000.00 From Dharamsala 13,320.00 Through Tsewang Gyaltso 6,522.18

Total 2,40,902.20

Total Expenditure on Tibetan Science Conclave Details Amount 1.Travel 44,894.00 2. Food/ Lodging 22,965.00 3.Decoration/Sound system 27,810.00 4. Stationary 14,405.00 5. Phone/Internet 7,749.00

6.Gift memento 10,845.00

7. Report 1,400.00 8. Expenses before Delhi conclave 7,801.00

Total 1,37,869.00

Total Balance sheet Detail Income Expenditure Balance

Balance brought down 3,150.00

Total Donation 2,40,902.18

2,44,052.20 Total Expenditure at TSC 1,37,869.00

1,06,183.20 Balance 1,06,183.2

Report From Treasurer's Account

We are thankful to Tibetan Children’s Village School to have had supported us with the 60% of food and lodging expenses. The amount is not mentioned in any of above accounts.

Our special thanks goes to : Prof. Richard R. Ernst Geshe Dorji Damdul

Gen Thupten Wangchen Mr. Karma Thinley

Tibetan Scientific Society Web-site : http://tibetanscientificsociety.com / http://tsenrig.com

E-mail : tsenrig@yahoo.com