Indian president Ram Nath Kovind approved the Padma Shri award for 118 recipients, which included Robert Thurman among six foreign awardees on 25 January, a day before the country celebrates India’s Republic Day.
The Padma Shri medal, instituted in 1954, is India’s fourth highest civilian award and is presented by the Indian government each year on India’s Republic Day, 26 January.
The father of Hollywood actress Uma Thurman, Thurman is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies in the Department of Religion at New York’s Columbia University. He is also president of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies at Columbia University.
(source: www.buddhistdoor.net)