Soka University’s International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology (IRIAB) organized and hosted an international symposium on Buddhist studies on the campus on November 29-30. Art historians, archaeologists and philologists from Germany, the United States, Australia, South Korea, Canada and Japan discussed their research on Mahayana Buddhism, the transmission of Buddhism from India to Central Asia and China, and related research.

IRIAB was established in 1997 to conduct free and broadminded research on Buddhist studies. Projects carried out by Institute members have been officially recognized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for their high academic quality since 2004. “We’re looking to foster intensive research on Buddhist philology on an international basis,” explains the Institute’s director, Hiroshi Kanno.