Hsi Lai: The Buddha's Birthday (5/24-31)

Please join Coming West (Hsi Lai) Temple in celebration of the birth of our teacher, Shakyamuni (Gautama) Buddha, which is one of the most important events on the Buddhist calendar. During this celebration, we partake in the traditional bathing of the baby Buddha (Prince Siddhartha), and pray not only for auspiciousness in our lives, but to also emulate him and his teachings. Date Sunday, May 24, 2026-Sunday, May 31, 2026, 9:00 am-5:00 pm at Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles County, California

• Hsi Lai Temple
• 3456 Glenmark Drive (near Colima)
• Hacienda Heights, CA 91745
• info@ibps.org, (626) 961-9697

Communal Cultivation at Hsi Lai Temple

Hsi Lai Buddhist Retreat, June 7-June 21, 2026 (ages 16-35)

Buddhist Question and Answers at Hsi Lai Temple

Hsi Lai Temple's Sangha Day Celebration, July 17, 2026

Hsi Lai Temple English Dharma Service

Buddhism in Ancient Gandhara (Afghanistan)

Khyentse Foundation, Nov. 10, 2022; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The golden face of the Scythian Prince Siddhartha, the Buddha (Mes Aynak, Afghanistan)

The Goodman Lectures: Buddhism in Ancient Gandhara and Recent Manuscript Discoveries

(Khyentse Foundation) The Goodman Lectures. Professor Mark Allon of the University of Sydney presented this talk on October 22, 2022.

• Gandhāran Buddhist texts

Several major collections of Buddhist manuscripts from ancient Buddhist Gandhara (present-day northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan [both of which were parts of India before Partition in 1947]) have come to light over the past three decades.

The oldest of these are the Gandhari [language] manuscripts, which date from approximately the 1st century BCE to the 3rd century CE, making them the earliest Buddhist manuscripts yet found.

After a historical survey of Buddhism in Gandhara (Central Asia), including local artistic innovations and the importance of the region in the spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and China, this lecture highlights:

• recent manuscript discoveries,
• the impact they are having on our understanding of Buddhism,
• the new technologies that make collaboration and digital repatriation possible.

ABOUT: Khyentse Foundation has organized this series. These online offerings by leading Buddhist Studies scholars are called "The Goodman Lectures." They are organized in honor of long-time Khyentse Foundation friend and advisor Professor Steven D. Goodman (1945–2020), whose enduring vision to make academic talks available to people beyond the classroom inspired Khyentse Foundation and its friends in academia to share their Buddhist knowledge and insight with a general audience.

The views expressed in the Goodman Lectures are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Khyentse Foundation. For more information, visit: khyentsefoundation.org/the-go..., khyentsefoundation.org/events.

West’s largest Buddhist stupa rises in Spain

Benalmádena, Spain’s Enlightenment Stupa is a karmic surprise amid the Moorish minarets and ancient Christian steeples.
Lee Lawrence (Christian Science Monitor, 3/18/09 edition)

Dressed in dark jeans and jacket, Dizi Btissam fingers a motorcycle helmet as she listens to a young man with thick eyelashes and wavy hair. Behind them, a gilded statue of Buddha looks benignly down at a row of poinsettias.

“He is not a god,” Ivan Baez explains, as a low tremolo of chants filters through the sound system. “For us he represents the natural qualities that we all possess but that are obscured by our emotions, personalities…” More>>

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PHOTOS: 1. Spanish enlightenment: A Spanish tourist stops to visit inside The Benalmádena Enlightenment Stupa south of Malaga (Lee Lawrence). 2. Unexpected stupa: the Benalmádena Enlightenment Stupa rises 108 feet high and stretches 82 feet across at the base – the largest in the West (Lee Lawrence).