During the public rehearsal of an annual festival of sacred dances at Shechen Monastery in Nepal, the dancers do not wear masks or costumes but add multicolored scarves to their monastic dress. Here, they practice a dance in honor of sixteen spiritual ‘heroes’ called gings in the monastery courtyard. 29 March 2015. Ceremony of Lama Sang...

Today, I would like to give our friend Ilios Kotsou the opportunity to draw attention to an often neglected aspect of the suffering endured by the Greek people, caused by the malfeasance of a few of their leaders and of global financial institutions. A documentary* by French “Le Monde” journalist Marc Roche, released on the French channel Arte,...

Mount Everest (29,028 ft), the highest mountain in the world, on the right Lhotse (27.939 ft), Nuptse (25,791 ft) and other peaks. By helicopter, April 8, 2015. Nepal

If Philip Morris wins its case against Uruguay forcing them to scrap its laws aimed at safeguarding public health, smoking bans in other countries will also be threatened, and this will give the company a license to kill. A ruling is expected soon from the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a branch of the Wo...

I have been very inspired by the research done over the recent years demonstrating that even as infants we are wired to be cooperative and helpful. At the Max Planck Institute of Leipzig, Michael Tomasello and Felix Warneken have established that children, from the age of one who are just beginning to learn to walk and speak - spontaneously ...

We place great emphasis on the environment in terms of natural wealth, and the importance of its preservation for the future of the biosphere. But we must also highlight the fact that the presence of a healthy natural environment has a remarkable effect on our subjective well-being. In his book An Ecology of Happiness, Éric Lambin, professor...

Recently I was in eastern France and had a chance to walk in the countryside. A friend who had accompanied me said: “Once upon a time, during cherry season, we would all be up in the trees filling our boots and arms with cherries. Nowadays the cherries stay on the branches. The children don’t climb trees anymore.” In fact, several studies hav...

With our network of partners, since the first quake in Nepal, Karuna-Shechen has helped 140,135 people in 379 villages, bringing essential medical, food and relief aid to the most vulnerable populations. We have also put in place a special program for pregnant women and new mothers. On top of their normal food rations, they receive iron, cal...

The glacier that comes down in fronf of Choyu, or Cho Oyu, (8,201 metres, 26,906 ft), the sixth highest mountain in the world, located on the Tibet-Nepal border, 20 km west of Mount Everest. “Choyu” comes from the Tibetan name Jowo Yu (jo bo g.yu), "Turquoise Lord”. A few kilometres west of Cho Oyu is Nangpa La (5,716m/18,753 ft), a pass tha...

Two weeks after a first earthquake devasted Nepal and caused over 8,000 casualties and 17,800 wounded, a new quake of a magnitude of 7,3 struck the north-east region of the country on May 12th. The teams on the ground of Karuna-Shechen, Matthieu Ricard's humanitarian organization, continue their work providing assistance to the victims of th...