Do you have a Facebook account? Then join us! Become a fan of Jonang Foundation. Join the Jonang Foundation Cause. Participate in the Jonang Tibetan Buddhism group. Become a Member of the Jonangpa.com Blog.

We hope to generate some positive activity and build a network of supporters via Facebook. Feel free to invite like-minded friends and get involved.

Tibetan Leaders Endorse Jonang

Tibetan Lamas at 11th Conference

Last week, during the 11th conference of Tibetan religious leaders that was held in Dharamsala, India, the Jonang was endorsed as a distinct and autonomous tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. This confirmation comes after years of petitioning the representative authorities in exile for official status. The next step in this deliberation process is approval from Tibetan Parliament. There is hope that the issue will be raised and approved during the congress of Parliament next spring.

Presiding over the conference, His Holiness the Dalai Lama strongly urged members to seriously consider the issue of granting status to the Jonang. Conference members who made this endorsement were the heads and high-ranking lamas of each of the Tibetan religious traditions: Sakya, Geluk, Nyingma, Kagyu and Bon.

The Jonang Buddhist tradition was established in the Jomonang valley in Central Tibet during the late 11th century and continues in an unbroken lineage of transmission up to the present day. Jonang Foundation serves as the international support organization and informational network for the tradition.

See the related article on Phayul.com

Pilgrimage to Tibet

Mount Kailash

Early Summer 2013: Dates to be Announced

A Cultural & Educational Expedition Hosted by Jonang Foundation

After an incredible heart-filling pilgrimage this summer through central Tibet with 19 pilgrims, we are happy to announce that our biannual pilgrimage to power places in Tibet will resume in 2013. Different from our previous pilgrimages, the 2013 expedition will have Tibet's most sacred mountain, Mount Kailash, as the apex of the journey.

This journey will take you through the ages and across the boundaries of cultural imagination to encounter the sacred sites of Tibet's living spiritual traditions. Meditation sessions, pilgrimage rituals, and discussions on Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan culture with Tulku Kunga Zangpo Rinpoche and Tibet specialists Dr. Michael Sheehy will be integral to the journey. All proceeds generated are contributed to educational and cultural preservation projects in Tibet hosted by Jonang Foundation.

Stay tuned for further information including the itinerary, costs, and registration details on our Pilgrimage page.

Jonang Publication Series III Released

Series III

The third set in the Jonang Publication Series (Jo nang dpe tshogs) is now available for purchase from Jonang Foundation. This ongoing series of select Tibetan Buddhist classics features important works by major Jonang authors from all genres of sutra and tantra. Each work in this series is chosen from the corpus of Jonang literature to reflect the contemporary scholastic curriculum within Jonang monastic universities inside Tibet. Several texts in this series are being made available in published form for the first time in centuries.

To view the 12 volumes, and purchase these fine Tibetan language (dbu can) books, visit the Series III page in the JF Shop.

See also, the Series I and Series II pages.

Interactive Jonang Sites Map

Working in collaboration with the University of Alabama, we at Jonang Foundation have developed an interactive satellite map of Jonang sites across Tibet.

Providing precise geographic locations of key Jonang sites, this map allows users to navigate both historical and active Jonang monasteries, stupas, nunneries, meditation caves, and other relevant landmark sites like never before.

Each site entry is linked to both the Jonang Foundation and Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center databases.

One of the participants on board our 2009 Jonang Foundation Pilgrimage to Tibet wrote this,

“Thank you Michael and Amitabha Travel for the opportunity to go on this once-in-a-lifetime trip! If anyone wanted to experience the power places of Tibet, there could be no better itinerary. Riding into Lhasa on the bus from the airport and seeing the Potala on the start of the journey just set the tone for what was to follow –- a taste of things to come. The highlight of the trip for me was the Great Stupa of Jonang, because it encapsulated for me what Tibetan Buddhism was actually all about –- forgetfulness of the world, devotion to the teacher and the teachings and overcoming the obstacles on the way. It was not an easy journey because of the altitude and the cultural differences, but in a way those only enhanced the meaning of the trip. I embraced the culture and the sites, and it is an experience which is to this day indelibly imprinted on my mind. I would do it again in a heartbeat if I had the chance! While the stops at Tashi Lhunpo, Sakya and Samye were must-sees, the experience of the lesser-known power places such as Old Lhatse, Bodong and Zhalu were a treasure in and of themselves. If you want to experience the true Tibet, you have to see these places!”

From Malvin Artley, Australia
A JF 2009 Pilgrimage Member

For details about the upcoming 2011 Tibet trip, see Pilgrimage.

Pilgrimage to Tibet 2011

August 13 - August 29, 2011

Mountain Prayer Flags

A Cultural & Educational Expedition Hosted by Jonang Foundation

In Collaboration with Amitabha Travel Agency

Join us this summer on a pilgrimage to power places in Tibet.

Traversing through the vast terrain of the mountainous landscapes of south and central Tibet (U-Tsang; Tibetan Autonomous Region) ― this journey will take you through the ages and across the boundaries of cultural imagination to encounter the sacred sites of Tibet's living spiritual traditions.

*Meditation sessions, pilgrimage rituals, and discussions on Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan culture will be integral to the journey.

For the itinerary, costs, and registration details please see the Pilgrimage page.

E. Gene Smith

With profound sorrow, we would like to acknowledge that E. Gene Smith, the eminent Tibetologists, founder of the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (TBRC), and a guiding member of the Executive Board of Jonang Foundation passed away on the afternoon of Thursday December 16, 2010.

Gene was one of the first people to encourage that we setup Jonang Foundation and he has served as a founding member of the Executive Board since its inception. Through our conversations over the years, he was a tremendous influence on the direction and projects hosted by the foundation. In fact, the text preservation and publication initiatives that we have undertaken over the past few years and the projects that we currently have in the works are all due to suggestions made by Gene.

Read brief personal reflections on the Jonangpa blog, Remembering Gene Smith.

Revised Version of "The Buddha from Dolpo" Now Available

The Buddha from Dolpo: A Study of the Life and Thought of the Tibetan Master Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen by Cyrus Stearns is now in a revised and expanded edition.

Book Cover

"The Buddha from Dölpo is the most significant contribution to the study of the life and revelations of one of the most enigmatic personalities in Tibetan intellectual history, the Jonang master Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (1292–1361). Narrating Dolpopa's life story and evolution of thought, Cyrus Stearns lucidly describes how this foremost exponent of shentong philosophical thinking and Kalachakra tantric practice served as the catalyst figure for the Jonang Buddhist tradition during its formative period in fourteenth-century Tibet. A decade after its first publication, this revised and enlarged edition includes several significant refinements and additions, including a translation of Dolpopa's own commentary on his masterful work concerning the calculations of cosmic time according to shentong literature known as the Fourth Council. With this revision, Stearns secures The Buddha from Dölpo its place within the Western-language canon of scholarship on Tibetan Buddhism, making it an essential read for understanding Dolpopa's presentation of shentong, the Kalachakra Tantra in Tibet, and the early Jonang Buddhist tradition."

― Michael R. Sheehy, Ph.D., Executive Director of Jonang Foundation ―

Read an excerpt from the book

Purchase from Snow Lion Publications

Lecture on JF's Work: At the University of Alabama

April 16, 2010
The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL

"Applied Scholarship in Tibetan Cultural Regions of China: Perspectives and Contributions from Jonang Foundation"

Michael R. Sheehy, Ph.D.

In this talk, Dr. Michael Sheehy, the founder and director of Jonang Foundation will discuss seminal themes at the intersection of scholarship and development work in culturally Tibetan regions of western China. Reflecting on the education and cultural preservation work of Jonang Foundation and the specific Tibetan research community of the Jonang tradition of Buddhism, this lecture will explore how contemporary scholarship in the field is being applied in order to contribute and be relevant to communities and locations of research. Particular attention will be given to modalities for conducting fieldwork in Tibetan regions, the role of digital media in preservation and documentation work, and how researchers and students are utilizing online resources in the academic field of Tibetan studies.