Happy Lunar New Year 2020 at Quang Duc Monastery

Asoka, grandson of Chandragupta, was one of the first royal patrons of Buddhism. The first was, perhaps, Bimbisara, who lived at the time of the Buddha. Asoka's legend is recorded in a second century book called the "Asokavadana" which was translated into Chinese by Fa-ch'in in 300 A.D. He is also known from his edicts written on rocks and pillars throughout India. In his youth. Asoka was known as Canda Asoka, the fierce Asoka, due to his aggressive nature. As a prince, he was appointed governor of Vidisa (modern Bhilsa) where he married a rich merchant's daughter. On hearing of his father's impending death, he hurried to the Capital, Pataliputra,

His Holiness the Dalai Lama left Minneapolis on May 9, 2011 for his next leg of his program in Dallas, Texas, receiving an honorary degree from the SouthernMethodist University and giving a talk on democracy... His Holiness said that all human beings were the same and that difference in faith, race, language, culture, etc., was secondary.

In his remarks His Holiness said that he was not special and that he was only doing his share of contributing to build a happier human society.

His Holiness begins his programs on May 3, 2011. During this trip His Holiness is participating programs in five universities in the states of California, Minnesota, Arkansas, and Texas as well as other events in New Jersey.

For many Americans, the dramatic photo of the Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation in 1963 constitutes their most enduring memory of the Vietnam War. In June of that year, as the Buddhist rebellion against Ngo Dinh Diem gained momentum, the elderly monk sat in a lotus position on a busy Saigon street and set himself on fire.

Bodhidharma (483-540 AD)

Kyabje Khensur Kangurwa Lobsang Thubten Rinpoche (1925-2014), or simply Rinpoche as his thousands of students around the world affectionately call him, is a Buddhist Monk and also the founder of TBI. He was born in December 1925 to a farming family in the small village of Rinda in a mountainous valley of eastern Tibet (Kham) in what is now the Kartse (Ganzi) Prefecture of Western Sichuan. This area was the birthplace of many great lamas of contemporary times, including Khensur Rinpoche Urgyen Tseten, the late Geshe Ngawang Dhargye and the late Geshe Rabten