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Established in 2012, this fund supports student and faculty travel to Asia.

CIIS Travel Grants

Exploring the Bounds of India: Northwestern Cities and Mountains

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This past April, Elsa Coughlin ‘19 and I received a travel grant for our Spring 2018 semester abroad in Chiang Mai, Thailand. With two weeks of break allotted to us in April, we were able to go to Northern India, completing a trek in the Western Himalayas, experiencing the city of Delhi, and engaging in person with content previously studied in Dr. Basu’s “Icons of Islamic Architecture” course.

Zen Buddhism and Self-Reflection in Japan

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I traveled to Japan in February of 2020, en route to a semester in New Zealand, with the intention of studying Zen Buddhism and local philosophical traditions in practice, and how these traditions affect daily life for their practitioners and their surrounding culture. I spent 2 days in Nagano, where I visited the Zenkoji Temple, a major Buddhist temple, and attended a sunrise mass. Before mass, a local woman noticed my uncertainty and approached me, helpfully explaining some of the traditions of the temple and asking questions about where I’d travelled from.