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ISJS, the preferred Global centre for Jain studies
The unique experiment 'ISJS' to take the academic studies of Jainism to the universities of the world was launched in January 2005. In 2009 ISJS made significant progress and expanded its reach in India and abroad. The graph below shows the progress in terms of the participants who have benefitted by our International Summer School for Jain Studies (ISSJS) programs so far.
50
40
30
20
10
0
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
SCHOOL OF
2010
OF JAIN STUDIES
Living beings help each other
Figure 1 Scholars enrolment in ISSJS
Originally the Indian program was designed for a two month summer stay in India at different places of interest for Jainism (and way of life) to provide a comprehensive and experiential exposure to the visiting scholars. A typical ISSJS program included over 100 class room lectures by eminent Jain scholars, visits to temples, monks and nuns, laity, rituals, pilgrim places and social welfare organizations run by Jains.
With the growing class sizes and diverse interests of the participants, the classes for 2010 onwards of ISSJS were split into two /three tiers for the starters, middle advanced graduates studies. ISJS since 2009 has started at Mahidol University Bangkok, Thailand. It was a combined program for all the participants (starters to middle and faculty).
For more information visit www.jainstudies.org