An active research initiative building open digital tools for the study, preservation, and dissemination of Buddhist heritage in the 21st century.
The Centre for Humanistic Buddhism · The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong
“Digital Humanistic Buddhism” reframes traditional Buddhist studies for the computational age. Rather than merely digitising paper texts, this initiative actively designs and releases interactive web tools — reconstructing iconography in 3D, indexing classical lexica with NLP, and visualising semantic networks across centuries of doctrine.
Two flagship tools are now publicly available, with more in active development.
Open, browser-based, and free for scholars, students, and practitioners worldwide.
3D / AR
A high-resolution 3D scan of the "Three-Acts Prince Pumǎn" figurine — co-authorised by Hong Kong Fo Guang Shan — that introduces the Buddha's thirty-two distinguishing bodily features. Drag, zoom, tap golden points, or launch AR mode to view the icon in your own space.
NLP / Lexicon
A research-grade web platform built on Ding Fubao's monumental Buddhist Dictionary (over 30,000 entries, 3.6 million characters). It transforms a paper-bound classic into a searchable, analysable, and visualisable resource — with semantic networks, frequency analytics, and bilingual cross-reference.
Design, develop, and openly release interactive applications across four core domains: (a) technology for Buddhist translation, (b) natural language processing for Buddhist texts, (c) visualisation of Buddhist manuscripts and material culture, and (d) computational approaches to Buddhist studies. Śākyamuni 3D and the Digital Buddhist Lexicon are the first two outputs of this pillar.
Raise awareness — among Buddhists, scholars, and the broader community — of the opportunities, challenges, and ethical considerations of human-computer interaction in dharma transmission, through online talks, an international conference, and continuous outreach.
Serve as a pilot for substantially larger Digital Buddhism initiatives — providing reusable datasets, open-source code, and methodological precedents for future cross-institutional collaboration.
Talks and conferences disseminating the initiative's research.
Introducing state-of-the-art digital approaches to the preservation of Buddhist monuments, excavated artifacts, and epigraphic manuscripts.
A focus on AI-driven applications that facilitate the translation of Buddhist texts, alongside computational methods for analysing the history of scriptural translation.
"Humanistic Buddhism in the Digital Era: The Way Forward" — gathering scholars from leading institutions to chart the research agenda for the 21st century.
This initiative is generously funded by the Research Matching Grant Scheme (RMGS), University Grants Committee (UGC), Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, under the project
“Digital Humanistic Buddhism: A New Approach to Contemporary Buddhist Studies”
We gratefully acknowledge our partners — Hong Kong Fo Guang Shan, the Chinese Cultural Foundation, the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts (DILA), the Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (CBETA), and the NTI Buddhist Text Reader — whose open scholarship makes this work possible.