Buddhist - Buddhist banner Woman praying in front of the Jhokang (Photo: Lyle Vincent, cropped) CC BY-ND 2.0

Welcome

The UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies trains scholars and educates members of the broader community about Buddhist religion and culture in all of their diversity. Among U.S. universities, only UCLA aspires to cover all of the major traditions in this world religion.

Upcoming Events

6/2/2025
3-5pm
The Ritual Work of Emptiness Metaphors

Professor Natalie Gummer (Beloit College) will lead a workshop on Buddhist metaphors for emptiness across several Buddhist texts in multiple languages.

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Recent Events

5/15/2025
9am-4:15pm
Rare Resources: Buddhist Materials at the UCLA Library

Los Angeles is home to the most diverse Buddhist communities and traditions in the world, UCLA is home to one of the largest Buddhist studies programs in the country, and UCLA Library is home to the significant collection on Buddhism studies outside of Asia. This symposium seeks to provide a venue for scholars, practitioners, librarians, archivists, students, and community patrons to gather and celebrate the close collaboration between UCLA and the community. We hope to use this event to share research outcomes, information, and resources related to research and teaching on Buddhism across these communities. During the program we will introduce and highlight major archival collections held at UCLA Libraries that have resulted from these successful collaborations. These collections, which have recently been processed and made available for research, document the Buddhist communities in the greater Los Angeles area.

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3/6/2025
3-4:30pm
The Space of Religion: Temple, State, and Buddhist Communities in Modern China

Book Talk

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News

In Memoriam: Diego Loukota, ‘Once-in-a-Generation' Intellect

Diego Loukota, a UCLA specialist in Indian and Central Asian Buddhism and assistant professor of Asian languages and cultures, died on March 17, 2024. He was 38 years old.
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Family love leads donor to create two endowed scholarships at UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies

Kyung Ki (Cindy) Min has created two endowed scholarships at the UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies that provide valuable support to students of Buddhism.
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