Scholarships for Buddhist Studies Students — BA, MA and Language Study

Funding for a PhD is hard to find, but at least there is a well-worn path: funded doctoral places, dissertation fellowships and research grants. For a BA, an MA or a year of language study, the money is more scattered. It comes from the institutes themselves, from governments that want international students, from language programmes and from a handful of Buddhist foundations. This guide sets out where to look. If you're planning a doctorate, read our separate guide on how to fund a PhD in Buddhist Studies.

Checked October 2026. Schemes are paused, renamed and relaunched more often than you might expect. Use this as a map, and always read the current call on the funder's own website before applying. Our Funding page lists each scheme below with its current status.

Start with the place itself

The first place to ask about money is the institution you want to study at. Many Buddhist Studies programmes have their own scholarships, often paid for by Buddhist foundations and donors, and these are usually the easiest awards to win, because the pool of applicants is small.

Rangjung Yeshe Institute (RYI) in Kathmandu is a good example of how much an institute can offer. Its financial aid includes:

BA and MA scholarships for new students who need support, and a merit-based scholarship for returning students in any programme
an MA Preparatory scholarship for the first year of the MA Prep programme
an Ordained Sangha Scholarship for monks and nuns, for up to four years of the BA or two years of the MA
a South Asia and Himalaya Scholarship for citizens of SAARC countries
an Engaged Learning Fellowship for one semester, and the Horst Koch Memorial Scholarship for an asynchronous online course

Applications open on 1 November. RYI starts reviewing them on 15 January and gives priority to applications that arrive by then, so if you want funding, apply for the programme and for aid together before mid-January.

Elsewhere, look for named scholarships in the department's funding pages. At Oxford, for example, the Glorisun Graduate Scholarship in Buddhist Studies supports MPhil and DPhil students. If a department doesn't list anything, email the admissions office and ask; small awards are not always advertised.

Choose where tuition is low

Where you study can matter more than any scholarship. The same MA can cost very different amounts in different countries:

Germany. Most public universities charge no tuition fees for most degree programmes, only a semester contribution of a few hundred euros, which often includes a local transport pass. The state of Baden-Württemberg is an exception and charges students from outside the EU. That makes an MA at a university such as Hamburg affordable even without a scholarship, though you still need to cover living costs.
Nepal and India. Fees at Buddhist institutes and universities in South Asia are usually far lower than in Europe or North America, and living costs are lower too.
Taiwan and Japan. Public university fees are moderate, and both governments run large scholarship schemes for international students (below).

Always add up the whole cost: fees, rent, food, travel home, visas and health insurance. A programme with higher fees in a cheaper city can work out cheaper overall.

Government scholarships for international students

Several governments pay international students to come and study, and Buddhist Studies is often an eligible field:

Japan: MEXT scholarships. The Research Student scholarship supports graduates under 35 who want to do research or a graduate degree at a Japanese university, at about ¥143,000–145,000 a month plus tuition. There is also an undergraduate scholarship for school leavers under 25. Most people apply through the Japanese embassy in their own country, usually in the spring of the year before they arrive.
India: ICCR scholarships. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations funds international students for undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral study in India, and Buddhist Studies is among the eligible fields. Applications go through ICCR's online portal, usually between late February and April, and dates vary by country.
Germany: DAAD. The German Academic Exchange Service funds international graduates who come to Germany for a Master's or doctorate, with monthly payments (for example €992 for students) plus travel and insurance. Different programmes suit different countries, and many close about a year before the course starts, so start early.
Your own government. Many countries fund their citizens to study abroad, for example through Fulbright in the US or national scholarship agencies elsewhere. Ask your university's study-abroad office what is open to you.

Funding for language study

Learning Classical Tibetan, Sanskrit, Pali or Buddhist Chinese often starts with a summer or a year of intensive language study, and there is money for that too:

Taiwan: the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship pays for 2 to 12 months of Mandarin at a university language centre in Taiwan, at NT$28,000 a month in 2026. Modern Mandarin is the usual first step towards reading Buddhist Chinese, and Taiwan has strong Buddhist Studies departments. Apply through the Taiwan office in your country, usually between February and April.
US citizens: the Critical Language Scholarship funds a summer of intensive study abroad. The 2027 languages include Chinese, Hindi, Japanese and Korean. Applications usually close in mid-November for the following summer.
Summer intensives at places such as RYI, and the Glorisun International Intensive Program on Buddhist Studies for graduate students, sometimes come with their own scholarships. Our guide to summer schools and online courses lists the main programmes.
A year in Japan: the BDK Canada Graduate Scholarship funds a year of study or research at a Japanese university for graduate students in Buddhist Studies at Canadian universities.

Buddhist foundations

Buddhist foundations fund a great deal of the field, but much of their money reaches students through universities rather than directly:

Khyentse Foundation has long offered Buddhist Studies scholarships to students of all traditions. As of March 2026 these scholarships are paused while the foundation reviews its programmes. It still funds financial aid at partner institutions, including RYI, so applying to the institute directly is often the way in.
Glorisun Global Network for Buddhist Studies funds fellowships and programmes at its member universities, including Oxford, Cambridge and Peking University.

Practical tips

Apply for funding at the same time as admission. Scholarship deadlines often come before, or together with, the admission deadline.
Combine partial awards. One full scholarship is rare; two or three partial ones are common. Many institutes let you apply for several, even if you can hold only one of their own at a time.
Explain your need and your plans clearly. Say what you want to study, why, and what you hope to do afterwards, whether that is a PhD, translation, teaching or serving a community.
Ask about work-study and part-time options. Some institutes offer fellowships for helping with teaching, events or the library, and online study can let you keep working while you learn.
Keep a calendar. Many of these schemes run every year at about the same time. A deadline you missed this year tells you when to apply next year.

Find current openings

Our Funding page lists the schemes in this guide with their current status, and shows funded PhD places and fellowships from the job board. To compare programmes, see the Study Map and our guides on where to study Buddhist Studies as an undergraduate and where to apply for an MA.

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