The effects of explant and plant growth regulators on callus induction and plant regeneration and particle bombardment-induced transformation were examined in lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) cv. Buntharik. The apical buds from embryos (∼3 mm) formed an embryogenic callus when cultured on MS medium supplemented with 40 μM 1-napthaleneactic acid (NAA) and 0.5 μM 1-phenyl-3-(1,2,3-thiadiazol-5-yl)-urea (TDZ) for 8 weeks. All of the embryogenic calluses were transferred to MS medium supplemented with 0, 40, 50 and 60 μM 6-benzyladenine (BA) and the highest number of shoots was achieved in the medium supplemented with 50 μM BA after 8 weeks of culture. The transformation of lotus using a particle bombardment device was examined with the shoot clusters from embryogenic apices. The pCAMBIA2301anti-DFR plasmid contained β-glucuronidase (GUS) as a reporter gene, neomycin phosphotransferase (NPTII) as a selectable marker, and antisense dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (anti-DFR) as the gene of interest. The particle bombardment procedure with a helium gas pressure of 1100 psi and a target distance of 6 cm yielded the highest number of blue spots (4.8 spots/shoot cluster). However, stable transformations, as confirmed by polymerase chain reaction and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis, were only achieved using a helium gas pressure of 1100 psi and a target distance of 9 cm. Our work illustrates that the stable transformation of lotus is possible, and we suggest that this methodology can be used to target and modify specific charactics of this plant.