Must-Reads from Around the World

Greece approved environmentally-risky mining to raise cash, Beijing orders government cars off the roads to curb pollution and why the French president could...

All-American Lama: How an 11th Century Mystic Was Reborn in Philadelphia

As a 5-year-old, Erdne Ombadykow began to display signs of eccentric behavior. While his many brothers and sisters were busy watching cartoons on TV or playing...

Divine Path: The Kumano Kodo Links Shrines, Hot Springs and Scenery

Fresh from a long hike through the lush hills and valleys of Japan's southwestern Kii Peninsula, Shugendo monks stand in their mud-splashed boots in front of the...

Dharma Master Cheng Yen

Buddhism teaches that suffering is inescapable but that everyone has the potential to overcome it. Taiwan's Dharma Master Cheng Yen is the embodiment of such a...

Mountain High: Find Bliss at Koya-San

The small mountain town of koya-san, several hours south of Osaka in central Japan, has been attracting pilgrims since the 9th century, when Buddhist monk Kobo...

A Testament to an Odyssey, A Monument to a Failure

The face of an obscure stone tablet is one of the few places in Sri Lanka where Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam can be found side by side. On it, inscriptions in...

China Falls for Tibet Chic

Zhu Zheqin, a struggling, whippet-thin Chinese singer, became her country's pop diva when she incorporated the Tibetan word for moon into her stage name,...

When a 'Chosen' Tibetan Lama Says No Thanks

"For the last time, I'm not your messiah," groans the title character in the 1979 comedy The Life of Brian. (They crucify him, anyway.) There's an echo of...

India's New Buddhists

Neha Mohan was 24 years old and living the new Indian dream, with a job at a New Delhi marketing firm that hitched her wagon to the country's chugging economy...

The World's Next Top Lama

To the apparent astonishment and delight of his American retinue, the baby-faced 22-year-old who may one day replace the Dalai Lama as the world symbol of...