Gangtok Workshop - Day 1

Museum of Tibetology

My first night of sleep in Gangtok went well.  I slept about 6 hours and was awakened only a few times by barking dogs.  Not bad at all really.  Best of all, I don’t feel much jet lag.  Maybe the melatonin is working.

The morning I made a cup of room-brewed instant coffee with powdered creamer, I then had a bowl of porridge and piece of toast for breakfast.  Then it was off to the first day of class.  The workshop is being held at the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology.  The attendees are monks who were invited by the Science for Monks program.  The monks in the workshop come from all over:  India, Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet.  At lunch, a monk mentioned to me that rarely do monks from such different places ever come together.  I replied that it was great that a common interest in science is what helped bring them together.

During class today, I introduced myself and gave everyone a bit about my background.  I mentioned that I am a research professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Washington in Seattle and that I also work at the Center for Neurotechnology.  I gave the monks some examples of the type of research going on in my lab and also at the Center.

Ordering events

We also discussed the history of neuroscience discoveries.  I printed out pictures showing 17 different neuroscientific discoveries or events.  For example, one picture showed acupuncture needles, another showed a phrenology bust and another showed an MRI machine.  Three groups of monks had to order the 17 pictures in chronological order from the earliest to the latest.  They did a good job although no one got them all in the correct order.

Next was a quick discussion of the importance learning about the brain.  All of the monks agreed that they should know about the brain and gave some good answers about why they wanted to learn neuroscience.  At question time, the first three questions were about the relationship between the brain, mind and consciousness.  I mentioned that these were common questions that the monks always had for me and try to hold them off until my lecture about consciousness.

The day ended with a short walk back to the hotel.  As I descended the small hill to the main portion of town, I was “welcomed” by music blaring from loudspeakers.  My room is just across the street from the speakers and it seems as if the music is inside my room.  I am not sure if this is for a party or festival, but I hope it doesn’t last into the night.  

View From My Room