Invited by Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University of Thailand, the Fifth World Youth Buddhist Symposium was held at Chiang Mai. Over 700 participants including scholars, university professors and students from more than 20 countries & 300 universities attended this grand symposium.

At the Interfaith Dialogue, the symposium invited Buddhist masters from Theravada Buddhism, Han Buddhism, and Tibetan Buddhism. They had conversations about the current social hot issues, the content of which included: the solution to mental confusions; youth education and personal development; propagating Buddhism by Internet; the promotion of interfaith harmony and cooperation.

The main theme of the fifth symposium is Ultimate Concern, which resonated widely with attendees through the three in-depth subthemes. Spiritual Well-being indicated that modern people depend on the outer world too excessively and have little or no knowledge about inner mind; Life and Death involved discussions on the meaning of birth and the destination after death; Tibetan Buddhism Tradition focused on how Tibetan Buddhism affects people’s thoughts and behaviours. Around these topics, the views and insight of the guest speaker made the participants reflect more about and yearn for wisdom.

Contestants of the WeSpeak were from prominent universities of the USA, Britain, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, Poland, and China. The symposium advocated the spirit of freedom and equality—competing on the same stage, the professors and students talked freely about the understanding and inspiration of life. During the Evening Dialogue, the special guests and the host got together to have an informal discussion on related issues, with a Q&A session provided for the audience to interact with the special guests. This had brought a lot of fresh inspirations to everyone.

Continuing the tradition of the previous symposia, there was a meditation practice session in which Khenpo Sodargye Rinpoche guided the attendees into the exploring of inner mind through concentration and mindfulness. During the visit to the Double Dragon Temple in Chiang Mai (Wat Phra That Doi Suthep), for the first time ever, masters and Buddhists from Theravada tradition, Han tradition, and Tibetan tradition joined together to do the life release ceremony.

Near the end of the symposium, the following awards were given out: Award of Best Essays on Ultimate Concern, WeSpeak Award, Award of Best Essays on The Ideal Planet, Excellent Volunteer Award for Ren-Culture Society, and Award of Outstanding Contribution to the Symposium.