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David E. Cooper is a British author and philosopher. He was brought up in Surrey and educated at Highgate School and then Oxford University, where he was given his first job in 1967, as a Lecturer in Philosophy. He went on to teach at the universities of Miami, London and Surrey before being appointed, in 1986, as Professor of Philosophy at Durham University – where he remained until retiring in 2008. During his academic career, David was a Visiting Professor at universities in the United States, Canada, Malta, Sri Lanka and South Africa. Cooper is the former Chair (or President) of the Aristotelian Society, the Mind Association, the Friedrich Nietzsche Society, and the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain. He is Secretary and a Trustee of the charity Project Sri Lanka, and he spends time each year visiting and supervising educational and humanitarian projects.

Cooper has published across a broad range of philosophical subjects, including philosophy of language, philosophy of education, ethics, aesthetics, environmental philosophy, animal ethics, philosophy of technology, philosophy of religion, history of both Western philosophy and Asian philosophy, and modern European philosophy, especially Heidegger, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein. In recent years, Cooper has written widely on environmental and Buddhist aesthetics, music and nature, the relationship of beauty and virtue, cultures of food, the significance of gardens, Daoism, our relationship to animals, and the notion of mystery.

Cooper is the author of a number of books, including World Philosophies: An Historical Introduction; Meaning; Existentialism: A Reconstruction; The Measure of Things: Humanism, Humility and Mystery; A Philosophy of Gardens; Convergence with Nature: A Daoist Perspective; Senses of Mystery: Engaging with Nature and the Meaning of Life; and Animals and Misanthropy. He has also edited a number of collections, including Blackwell Companion to Aesthetics; Philosophy: The Classic Readings; Epistemology: The Classic Readings; Ethics: The Classic Readings; and Aesthetics: The Classic Readings – the latter four notable for their inclusion of material from the Indian and Chinese traditions. He is joint editor of Key Thinkers on the Environment. Cooper is a regular reviewer of books for magazines, including The Times Literary Supplement and The Los Angeles Review of Books. He is also the author of three novels, all set in Sri Lanka: Street Dog: A Sri Lankan Story, its sequel, Old Stripe, and A Shot on the Beach. (Source Accessed Mar 12, 2021)

Philippe Cornu (b. 1957) began studying Tibetan at the age of 18 and became a Buddhist in 1978. He was one of the first Rigpa students in France and has studied and practised Tibetan Buddhism with Dudjom Rinpoche, Sogyal Rinpoche, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, and other teachers of the Nyingma tradition.

Philippe is an author and translator from Tibetan into French of several books on the Nyingma school and Dzogchen. He has also devoted a large part of his career to teaching and transmitting Buddhist philosophy in French speaking universities such as the French National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO), and at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain), as well as in different Buddhist centres. He joined Rigpa's new Vision Board in 2019. (Source Accessed June 10, 2021)

I am an associate professor of philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the College of Charleston. I work in the fields of philosophy of mind, Phenomenology, and cross-cultural philosophy, especially Indian and Buddhist philosophy in dialogue with Western philosophy and cognitive science. I have recently published a book, Perceiving Reality: Consciousness, Intentionality, and Cognition in Buddhist Philosophy (OUP, 2012) that develops a view of Buddhist epistemology, in the tradition of Dignaga and Dharmakirti, as continuous with the phenomenological methods and insights of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, as well as with naturalistic approaches to epistenology and philosophy of mind. In 2012 I co-directed (with Jay Garfield and Evan Thompson) an NEH Summer Institute exploring the convergence of analytic, phenomenological, and Buddhist perspectives in the investigation of consciousness. I am currently completing a book manuscript on the intersections between perceptual and affective consciousness, tentatively entitled Sense, Self-Awareness, and Subjectivity.

Before joining the Philosophy Department at the College of Charleston, I taught in the Centre for Asian Societies and Histories at the Australian National University. I received my Ph.D. from the Australian National University in 2005; I also hold a B.A. and M.A. in philosophy from the University of Bucharest. While at ANU, I also worked on a proof of concept model for parsing Sanskrit based on the Interlingua System (the project was funded by an ARC grant). I have and continue to travel extensively for my research. I spent four and a half years in India in the mid 1990s pursuing studies in Sanskrit and Indian Philosophy. While in India, I was affiliated with several research institutes, including the Asiatic Society in Calcutta (1995-1996), the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute and De Nobili College in Pune (1993), and the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi (1995-1997). I was a visiting scholar at Queens' College, Cambridge University in 2000, and at the Institut de Civilisation Indienne, Paris in 2001.

I grew up on the banks of the Danube in Galati, Romania. I now live in Charleston, and am married to my colleague, philosopher and author Sheridan Hough.

The Cowherds are scholars of Buddhist studies from the United States, Great Britain, Switzerland, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. They are united by a commitment to rigorous philosophical analysis as an approach to understanding Buddhist metaphysics and epistemology, and to the union of philology and philosophy in the service of greater understanding of the Buddhist tradition and its insights.

They are: Amber Carpenter, Charles Goodman, Stephen Jenkins, Georges Dreyfus, Bronwyn Finnigan, Jay L. Garfield, Guy Martin Newland, Graham Priest, Mark Siderits, Koji Tanaka, Sonam Thakchoe, Tom Tillemans, and Jan Westerhoff.

Jamie is a graduate student in Tibetan Studies at the Institute of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, where he is currently completing his MA thesis on the life of Gö Lotsawa Shönu Pal. Jamie provides administrative support for the Translation Teams and is our source text researcher and catalogue curator. Jamie’s research focuses mainly on the philosophical literature of Tibetan Buddhism, in particular the different Tibetan Madhyamaka interpretations, Tibetan biography writing, the Kadam teachings on mind training (blo sbyong), and experiential songs (mgur). He has also contributed to several translation projects, such as Study Buddhism (Berzin Archives) and 84000.

Jamie currently lives in Vienna, where he has found the ideal environment to spend his free time pursuing his interest in classical music and playing the double bass. (Source Accessed Sep 7, 2021)

Kate Crosby joined King’s as Professor of Buddhist Studies in April 2013. She came to King’s from SOAS where she was Director of the Centre of Buddhist Studies and Seiyu Kiriyama Reader in Buddhist Studies. Before that she held posts in Buddhism, Pali and Sanskrit at the universities of Edinburgh, Lancaster and Cardiff, as well as teaching in Oxford at a number of colleges and the Oriental Institute. She has held visiting professorships at the Universities of McGill, Montreal, Dongguk, Seoul and the Buddhist Institute, Phnom Penh. She studied Sanskrit, Pali and other Buddhist languages, Indian religions and Buddhism at Oxford (MA and D.Phil., St. Hugh’s and St. Peter’s). She also studied at the universities of Hamburg and Kelaniya (Sri Lanka), as a Commonwealth Scholar, and with traditional teachers in Pune, Varanasi and Kathmandu.

In addition to textual work using mainly classical languages, as well as some in mixed Pali-Sinhala, she has conducted fieldwork in most Theravada countries. She is co-editor of the international peer-review journal Contemporary Buddhism and a member of the Theravada Civilizations Project. (Source Accessed Jan 7, 2021)

Bryan J. Cuevas (Ph.D., University of Virginia) joined the Department of Religion faculty of Florida State University in Fall 2000. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Asian religious traditions, specializing in Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhism, Tibetan history, language, and culture. His principal research interests focus on Tibetan history and biography, Buddhist magic and sorcery, and the politics of ritual power in premodern Tibetan societies. He is currently working on the history of the Buddhist Vajrabhairava and Yamāntaka/Yamāri traditions in Tibet, with special focus on the Raluk (Rwa lugs) transmissions and their lineages from the twelfth through early eighteenth centuries. This is a component of a broader long-term study of Tibetan sorcery and the politics of Buddhist ritual magic in Tibet up through the nineteenth century.

Dr. Cuevas has been a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, and has held visiting appointments at UC Berkeley, Princeton University, and Emory University. His research has been supported by fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), as well as grants from public and private endowments.

Dr. Cuevas is currently accepting graduate students (M.A. and Ph.D.) interested in pursuing research topics in Tibetan and Buddhist studies for the upcoming 2022-23 academic year. (Source Accessed Feb 23, 2022.)

Major General Sir Alexander Cunningham (January 1814 – 28 November 1893) was a British Army engineer with the Bengal Engineer Group who later took an interest in the history and archaeology of India. In 1861, he was appointed to the newly created position of archaeological surveyor to the government of India; and he founded and organised what later became the Archaeological Survey of India.

He wrote numerous books and monographs and made extensive collections of artefacts. Some of his collections were lost, but most of the gold and silver coins and a fine group of Buddhist sculptures and jewelery were bought by the British Museum in 1894. He was also the father of mathematician Allan Cunningham. (Source Accessed Aug 16, 2023)

Jacob Dalton, Professor and Khyentse Foundation Distinguished Professor of Tibetan Buddhism, received his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Michigan in 2002. After working for three years (2002-05) as a researcher with the International Dunhuang Project at the British Library, he taught at Yale University (2005-2008) before moving to Berkeley. He works on Nyingma religious history, tantric ritual, early Tibetan paleography, and the Dunhuang manuscripts. He is the author of The Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism (Yale University Press, 2011) and Through the Eyes of the Compendium of Intentions: The History of a Tibetan Ritual Tradition (Columbia University Press, under review), and co-author of Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Stein Collection at the British Library (Brill, 2006). He is currently working on a study of tantric ritual in the Dunhuang manuscripts.

(Source: UC Berkeley)

Venerable Geshe Dorji Damdul is presently Director - Tibet House, New Delhi. He has undertaken several projects for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, serving as the primary translator for many of his works. Born in 1968, Geshe Dorji Damdul earned his Geshe Lharampa Degree in 2002 from Drepung Loseling Monastic University.

He has a most fantastic analytical mind, and his skillful technique ensures that most practitioners understand the wisdom rooted behind their practice. Geshe La regularly gives teachings at Tibet House and Deer Park Institute. (Source Accessed Oct 27, 2021)

The late Geshe Lobsang Dargyay was trained at Drepung Monastery in Tibet. He got his doctorate in Buddhist and Tibetan Studies from the Ludwig Maximilians Universität and held teaching and research positions in Vienna, Hamburg, and Calgary. Geshe-la was the first Tibetan to receive a doctorate from a Western university. He passed away in 1994. (Source Accessed Sept 23, 2020)

For a more complete biography, see "In Memoriam: Geshe Lobsang Dargyay (1935–94)" by Eva Neumaier, in Freedom from Extremes: Gorampa's "Distinguishing the Views" and the Polemics of Emptiness (Wisdom Publications, 2007), xi–xiv.

Bret W. Davis is Professor and Thomas J. Higgins, S.J. Chair in Philosophy at Loyola University Maryland, where he teaches courses on Western, Asian, and cross-cultural philosophy. His research focuses on Japanese philosophy (esp. the Kyoto School and Zen Buddhism), on Continental philosophy (esp. Heidegger, phenomenology, and hermeneutics), and on issues in cross-cultural philosophy and comparative philosophy of religion.

Along with earning a Ph.D. in philosophy from Vanderbilt University, he has studied and taught for more than a year in Germany and for more than a dozen years in Japan. In Japan, he studied Buddhist thought at Otani University, completed the coursework for a second Ph.D. in Japanese philosophy at Kyoto University, taught philosophy and related courses in Japanese at various universities, and practiced Zen Buddhism at Shōkokuji, one of the main Rinzai Zen training monasteries in Kyoto.

In addition to authoring more than 75 articles in English and Japanese, as well as translating many articles from Japanese and German, he is author of Heidegger and the Will: On the Way to Gelassenheit (Northwestern University Press, 2007); translator of Martin Heidegger’s Country Path Conversations (Indiana University Press, 2010, paperback edition 2016); editor of The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2020) and of Martin Heidegger: Key Concepts (Acumen, 2010, Routledge, 2014); coeditor with Fujita Masakatsu of Sekai no naka no Nihon no tetsugaku (Japanese Philosophy in the World) (Shōwadō, 2005); and coeditor with Brian Schroeder and Jason Wirth of Japanese and Continental Philosophy: Conversations with the Kyoto School (Indiana University Press, 2011) and of Engaging Dōgen’s Zen: The Philosophy of Practice as Awakening (Wisdom Publishing, 2017).

His current projects include a book manuscript on Zen Buddhism and another on the Kyoto School and interpersonal as well as intercultural dialogue. He was the Director of the 2017 Collegium Phaenomenologicum, is Associate Officer of The Comparative and Continental Philosophy Circle, serves on the board of directors of the Nishida Philosophy Association (Nishida tetsugakkai) as well as on the editorial boards of several journals and book series, and is coeditor of Indiana University Press’s series in World Philosophies. (Source Accessed Nov 25, 2019)

William Theodore de Bary (Chinese: 狄培理; pinyin: Dí Péilǐ; August 9, 1919 – July 14, 2017) was an American Sinologist and scholar of East Asian philosophy who was a professor and administrator at Columbia University for nearly 70 years.

De Bary graduated from Columbia College in 1941, where he was a student in the first year of Columbia's famed Literature Humanities course. He then briefly took up graduate studies at Harvard University before leaving to serve in American military intelligence in the Pacific Theatre of World War Two. Upon his return, he resumed his studies at Columbia, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1953.

In order to create text books for the non-Western version of the Columbia humanities course, he drew together teams of scholars to translate original source material, Sources of Chinese Tradition (1960), Sources of Japanese Tradition, and Sources of Indian Tradition. His extensive publications made the case for the universality of Asian values and a tradition of democratic values in Confucianism. He is recognized as training the graduate students and mentoring the scholars who created the field of Neo-Confucian studies. (Source Accessed July 18, 2023)

J. W. de Jong was born in Leiden. He attended primary school and gymnasium in Leiden, and went on to study at the University of Leiden from 1939–1945, where he began his lifelong study of the "canonical languages" of Buddhism: he took Chinese as his major, while minoring in Japanese and Sanskrit. With the closing of the university in 1940 following the German invasion of the Netherlands, de Jong was forced to continue his studies on his own. With the war's end in 1945, the university reopened and de Jong passed his candidaatsexamen. In 1946, he traveled to the United States as a visiting professor at Harvard University, where he continued his study of Sanskrit texts.

From 1947-1950, he lived in Paris, studying at both the Sorbonne and the Collège de France, where he began studying Tibetan. While still in Paris, he met his future wife Gisèle Bacquès, whom he married in 1949. That same year, he was awarded his PhD from the University of Leiden; his doctoral thesis was a critical translation of Candrakīrti's Prasannapadā. He also began studying Mongolian.

He returned to the Netherlands in 1950 to act as senior research assistant (1950–1954) and continuing academic employee (1954–1956) at the Univ. of Leiden, working at the university's Sinologisch Instituut; in 1956, he became the first Chair of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies when the position was created at the Insituut Kern (the Indological institute at the Univ. of Leiden). In 1957, de Jong founded the Indo-Iranian Journal with Univ. of Leiden colleague F. B. J. Kuijper in 1957 in order to facilitate the publishing of scholarly articles in Indology. In 1965, he moved to Australia to become professor of Indology at the Australian National University in Canberra, a position he held until his retirement in 1986.

De Jong became a corresponding member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1978.

De Jong is well known for his amazing linguistic ability having had a command of Dutch, French, English, German, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Danish, Mongolian, Sanskrit, Pāli, and Tibetan, as well as the rather acerbic quality of his reviews. His scholarly publications number more than 800; 700 of these are reviews. He made major contributions to the field of Tibetan studies, including a study of an account of the life of Milarepa by Tsangnyong Heruka Rüpägyäncän (Gtsang-smyon he-ru-ka rus-pa'i-rgyan-can) (1490), and the editing and translation of all Dunhuang fragments apropos of the Rāmāyaṇa story in Tibetan. Furthermore, his work on Madhyamaka philosophy in the 1940s is some of the earliest to treat that topic in detail.

De Jong died in Canberra. In April 2000, some 12,000 items from his personal library (which itself contained over 20,000 volumes) was purchased from his family in Canberra by the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Source Accessed Mar 17, 2020)

Igor de Rachewiltz was an Italian historian and philologist specializing in Mongol studies. [He] was born in Rome, the son of Bruno Guido and Antonina Perosio. The de Rachewiltz family was of noble roots. His grandmother was a Tatar from Kazan in central Russia who claimed lineage from the Golden Horde. In 1947, he read Michael Prawdin's book Tschingis-Chan und seine Erben (Genghis Khan and his Heritage) and became interested in learning the Mongolian language. He graduated with a law degree from a university in Rome and pursued Oriental studies in Naples. In the early 1950s, de Rachewiltz went to Australia on scholarship. He earned his PhD in Chinese history from Australian National University, Canberra in 1961. His dissertation was on Genghis Khan's secretary, 13th-century Chinese scholar Yelü Chucai.

Starting in 1965 he became a fellow at the Department of Far Eastern History, Australian National University (1965–67). He made a research trip to Europe (1966–67). He published a translation of The Secret History of the Mongols in eleven volumes of Papers on Far Eastern History (1971–1985). He became a senior Fellow of the Division of Pacific and Asian History at the Australian National University (1967–94), a research-only fellowship. He completed projects by prominent Mongolists Antoine Mostaert and Henri Serruys after their deaths. He was a visiting professor at the University of Rome three times (1996, 1999, 2001). In 2004 he published his translation of the Secret History with Brill; it was selected by Choice as Outstanding Academic Title (2005) and is now in its second edition. In 2007 he donated his personal library of around 6000 volumes to the Scheut Memorial Library at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Late in his life de Rachewiltz was an emeritus Fellow in the Pacific and Asian History Division of the Australian National University. His research interests included the political and cultural history of China and Mongolia in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, East-West political and cultural contacts, and Sino-Mongolian philology generally. In 2015, de Rachewiltz published an open access version of his previous translation, The Secret History of the Mongols: A Mongolian Epic Chronicle of the Thirteenth Century, that is a full translation but omits the extensive footnotes of his previous translations. Igor de Rachewiltz died on July 30, 2016. He was 87. (Source Accessed Feb 22, 2021)

OBITUARY (Summit Times, November 15, 2021)

NAMGYAL INSTITUTE OF TIBETOLOGY REMEMBERS ITS FORMER DIRECTOR, BERMIOK RINPOCHE TASHI DENSAPA

A meaningful life lived in the service of others

OBITUARY written by the Director and Staff of Namgyal Institute of Tibetology

Our former Director, Bermiok Rinpoche Tashi Densapa passed away at Manipal Central Referral Hospital on the morning of November 13, 2021. With his passing, Sikkim and the Buddhist world lost a leading light and luminary. Bermiok Rinpoche was born on January 10, 1942 to Bermiok Athing Tashi Dadul Densapa and Chamkusho Yonten Dolma, sister of Gyalyum Dechen Dolma of Sakya Phuntsok Phodrang. At an early age, he was recognized as a reincarnation of his paternal uncle, Bermiok Kusho Karma Palden Choegyal who was the State Lama of Sikkim and through him as the third reincarnation of Simick Rechen Drubwang Wosel Dorjee by His Holiness the XVIth Gyalwa Karmapa.

However, Bermiok Athingla eschewed a monastic education for a western one for his son. Rinpoche got his schooling from Mount Hermon School, Darjeeling, majored in Political History from St. Stephens, Delhi University and subsequently went on to do his post-graduate studies at Washington University, Seattle, U.S.A. Upon his return from the States, he had a brief stint as the Assistant Director at the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology which he would return to helm later in his life. Rinpoche then joined government service and ably served in various departments such as Tourism and Culture and in capacities such as Managing Director, STCS and Resident Commissioner of Sikkim House in New Delhi before ultimately superannuating as Secretary to the Government of Sikkim.

Post retirement, Rinpoche took over the reins of the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology (NIT) on March 14, 2002 as its new Director. This marked a definitive and most productive epoch for both Rinpoche and the NIT. He went on to dedicate almost two decades of his life to the NIT and distinguish himself during his stint- the longest ever by any incumbent- as a visionary leader of unwavering commitment and unsurpassable zeal; he infused fresh life into and lifted the institute out of the doldrums and steered it towards its acme. It was under his peerless guidance that the NIT went on to reclaim its position as a premier institute for the preservation and promotion of Buddhist ethos in the trans-Himalayan region thus keeping alive the dream of our Founder President Chogyal Palden Thondup Namgyal.

Rinpoche expanded and revitalized the academic thrust areas by initiating the Sikkim Studies that focused on Sikkim-centric research, of particular note the Sikkim Ritual Video Archive and the Historic Photographs of Sikkim projects. Concurrently, he got on board Tibetan Buddhist scholars to spearhead research on various aspects of Buddhism with a special focus on Sikkim which resulted in a large number of important publications in both Tibetan and English to serve as a corpus of resources for the benefit of posterity. He was always keen that we research and document as much as we could before it was too late.

He used his strong networking skills and leveraged his many alumni and other contacts in various Ministries of the Central Government to get the requisite funding for the many new projects he implemented at the cash- strapped institute while simultaneously getting funding for the digitization of the existing resources of the NIT. With the help of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of the Government of India, he took great initiative in developing the digital Tibetan language and making the digitized wealth of Buddhist wisdom in the collection of the NIT easily accessible to the Buddhist world at large.

A progressive and able administrator, under his stewardship, the NIT infrastructure grew to include perimeter fencing against encroachment, the addition of the new Conference Hall and Library complex and new hostel and apartment accommodation; NIT concurrently grew in leaps and bounds in its organizational skills and was soon organizing and hosting international conferences as well as a series of workshops and lectures on topics as varied as Science, Spirituality and Education and Quantum Physics and Emptiness in Buddhist Philosophy. However, Rinpoche always voiced his concern over the continued future of the NIT and felt that the way forward was to morph into a Buddhist university. Interestingly, in 2016, the State Government mooted the proposal for the establishment of the first Buddhist University in Sikkim, and NIT was entrusted with this huge responsibility. Rinpoche proved himself more than equal to embark on this ambitious project, and along with the new OSD Mr KN Bhutia, he actuated a plan of action that included the starting in 2017 of the Post Graduate programme in Buddhist and Tibetan Studies and the Faculty of Sowa Rigpa under the Sikkim University as per UGC norms and with the due approval of the State Government. The Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India sanctioned funding for the infrastructure development of the Faculty of Sowa Rigpa which today boasts its own academic block, hostel block, pharmacy, clinic and herbal garden and is on the verge of churning out the first batch of newly minted Amjilas of the BSRMS course equivalent to MBBS. The MA Buddhist and Tibetan Studies programme is in its third intake. It was primarily to consolidate and see his passion project to successful completion that Rinpoche opted to serve from mid-2019 until his retirement in February, 2021 as an Honorary Director with only a nominal salary. He left on a high note with the Institute on a sustained growth trajectory and a legacy hard to match forget surpass. Outside of his activities at NIT, Rinpoche was very active in the preservation and promotion of Tibetan Buddhism as well as the social, religious and cultural ethos of his native Sikkim. While possibly not an exhaustive list, some of the various positions he held are:

Founding Member of the International Buddhist Confederation, New Delhi Member of the Mahabodhi Society of India, Kolkata. Advisor to HH Gyalwa Karmapa Orgen Trinley Dorje and Chairman of one of his Charitable Trusts Advisor to Sakya Dolma Phodrang Foundation, Dehra Dun Advisor to Rumtek Labrang Advisor to Mingyur Rinpoche’s Labrang Chairman of Sakya Tashi Choeling Trust Member of the Executive Council of Sikkim University

Rinpoche was also a generous philanthropist and donated land at Alu Bari, South Sikkim to Sakya Tashi Choling and Mindroling Penam Rinpoche for the establishment of their monasteries. He also re-built the Simick Sangag Dudul Ling monastery of his predecessor at Simick Lingzey. This was the first monastery in Sikkim to incorporate earthquake- resistant engineering design. He also built the Nyama Lhakhang at Simick. Simick monks came on record to state that Rinpoche in his lifetime had expressly evinced his desire to be cremated at his monastery there, but this was sadly not to be.

Rinpoche’s untimely demise has been a monumental loss not only to us here at NIT and Sikkim in particular but to the entire Buddhist world at large. His Dharma activities were diverse and innumerable, and his demise leaves a huge vacuum. But in the words of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, we take succour in the fact that he ‘lived a meaningful life in the service of others.’ We condole his family and share their grief in this darkest hour. As a mark of respect for the departed soul, the Director, NIT has declared November 16, 2021 as a holiday for the institute. A huge prayer meeting was held on November 15, 2021 in the NIT Conference Hall with the full attendance of NIT staff as well as the Faculty of Sowa Rigpa and Buddhist and Tibetan studies. Tsogbhum and Tongchoe will also be offered by the NIT at the Chorten monastery on November 19, 2021. Monlom recitation and Gyamchod will be offered every morning henceforth at the NIT until the 49 th day for the swift rebirth of Rinpoche.

Om Ami Dewa Hri!

(Source: http://tibetology.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Obituary.pdf)

J.F. Marc des Jardins joined Concordia in 2005 as Assistant Professor after completing a postdoctoral degree on Conflict Resolutions at the Institute of Asian Research at The University of British Columbia. He teaches courses on the various Buddhist traditions (Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese and South Asian) as well as Chinese Popular Cults, Daoism and Tibetan religions. His research focuses on the Tibetan Bön religion and local societies and he has been actively engaged in field-based research along the Sino-Tibetan borderlands since 1991. Dr. des Jardins combines anthropological field methods with textual analysis and historiography. He has recently published a monograph entitled Le sûtra de la Mahâmâyûrî: rituel et politique dans la Chine des Tang (618-907) (Presse de l'Université Laval 2011) which is a study and translation of a key Chinese Buddhist grimoire important in the history of esoterism in Buddhism. In this work, he illustrates how Chinese indigenous cultural and political traditions were highly compatible with the Buddhist ritual traditions of Medieval India.

In 2011, Dr. des Jardins was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor, and is currently working on different translation and research projects on the indigenous Bön Research which seeks to promote and support scientific research on indigenous Tibetan cultural and social traditions. (Source Accessed Nov 20, 2023)

Short Biography:
Mitra Tyler Dewar met Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche in 1997, just one year after beginning his journey of practicing the dharma. Through an auspicious coincidence, he learned the Tibetan alphabet that summer and soon after formed the conviction to serve the dharma through translating Tibetan into English. He became a formal student of Rinpoche's in 1998 and began translating for Rinpoche's organizations, Nalandabodhi and Nitartha Institute, in 2000. In 2001 he became the regular translator for Acharya Sherab Gyaltsen Negi at Nalandabodhi Seattle. From that point onward, Tyler has traveled extensively with The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche on Rinpoche's teaching tours, translating for the Tibetan segments of Rinpoche's teachings and occasionally presenting aspects of Rinpoche's teachings himself. In 2003 Nalandabodhi welcomed Acharya Tashi Wangchuk as a resident teacher; Tyler served as Acharya's oral interpreter and also worked closely with Acharya on the translation of several texts from the philosophical and intuitive traditions of Indian and Tibetan Buddhadharma. Tyler has served as a secretary in the Office of The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche for the past seven years, and has thus felt enriched by the opportunity to support Rinpoche's teaching activity from many perspectives.

In terms of his formative dharma training, Tyler completed two dathuns (month-long intensive meditation retreats) in the late 90s and resided for one year, 1997-1998, at Gampo Abbey Monastery in Nova Scotia, Canada, practicing intensively, participating in several study curricula, and attending lengthy seminars by Ani Pema Chödrön on Mind Training. He has attended Nitartha Institute's summer program since 1999 and has been a faculty member since 2000, translating for such courses as Collected Topics, Abhidharma, Mind Only, and Madhyamaka. He attended his first Nalandabodhi Sangha Retreat in 2001 and has been in attendance ever since.

Two books of Tyler's translations have been published by Snow Lion Publications: Trainings in Compassion: Manuals on the Meditation of Avalokiteshvara (2004) and The Karmapa's Middle Way: Feast for the Fortunate (2008), a translation of a major philosophical work by the Ninth Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje.

K. L. Dhammajoti (born 29 May 1949) is a Buddhist monk from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was ordained according to the Theravada tradition of Buddhism.

He is also one of the leading scholars on Sarvastivada Abhidharma. and is well known in the world of Buddhist scholarship for several contributions. These include some of his own personal work, such as Sarvastivada abhidharma, The Chinese Version of the Dhammapada, Entrance into the Supreme Doctrine, and Abhidhamma Doctrines and Controversies on Perception. He is also the founding editor of an annual academic Journal of Buddhist Studies from the Centre for Buddhist Studies, Sri Lanka. Currently, he is serving as the director of Buddha-Dharma Centre of Hong Kong Ltd. (Source Accessed Jan 8, 2024)

About Tarthang Tulku

Keenly aware of Tibet’s irreparable loss and willing to do everything possible to sustain the precious heritage of the Land of Snows, Dharma Publishing has worked to realize three principle goals: preservation of Tibetan texts and art, publication of works in Western languages that communicate the meaning and value of the Dharma, and distribution of texts to monks and scholars of the Tibetan Community.

It is our hope that, even if the lineages do not survive in their traditional form, the texts and the knowledge they contain will be available for future generations. Although civilizations rise and fall, perhaps the day will come when this precious enlightened knowledge can once more be fully applied for the benefit of all sentient beings. (Source Accessed August 26, 2015)

Divākara (地婆訶羅, 613–87), or Rizhao (日照) in Chinese, was born in central India in the Brahmin Caste.

He became a Monk when he was just a child, and he spent many years at the Mahābodhi Temple and the Nālandā Monastery. He was an accomplished Tripiṭaka master, excelled in the five studies and especially in Mantra practices.

Already in his sixties, Divākara went to Chang-an (長安), China, in 676, the first year of the Yifeng (儀鳳) years of the Tang Dynasty (618–907).

Emperor Gaozong (唐高宗) treated him as respectfully as he had treated the illustrious Tripiṭaka master Xuanzang.

In 680, the first year of the Yonglong (永隆) years, the emperor commanded ten learned Monks to assist Divākara in translating sūtras from Sanskrit into Chinese.

In six years Divākara translated eighteen sūtras, including the Sūtra of the Buddha-Crown Superb Victory Dhāraṇī (T19n0970), the Sūtra of the Great Cundī Dhāraṇī (T20n1077), and the Mahāyāna Sūtra of Consciousness Revealed (T12n0347).

Longing to see his mother again, he petitioned for permission to go home.

Unfortunately, although permission was granted, he fell ill and died in the twelfth month of 687, the third year of the Chuigong (垂拱) years, at the age of seventy-five.

Empress Wu (武后則天) had him buried properly at the Xiangshan Monastery (香山寺) in Luoyang (洛陽). (Source Accessed Aug 18, 2020)

Venerable Doboom Lozang Tenzin Tulku (rDo-bum Blo-bzang bstan-’dzin sPrul-ku), also known simply as Doboom Tulku, was born in 1942 in Shayul (Sha-yul) in Kham (Khams), eastern Tibet. At the age of two or three, he was recognized by Lama Phurchog Jamgon Rinpoche (Bla-ma Phur-lcog ’Jam-mgon Rin-po-che) to be the reincarnation of the previous Doboom Tulku. Following this, he was taken to stay at a hermitage near Dargye Monastery (Dar-rgyas dGon), where he stayed until the age of twelve.

In 1953, Doboom Tulku entered Drepung Monastery (Bras-spungs dGon-pa) in Tibet, where he studied Buddhist philosophy until the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959 forced him into exile in India at the age of seventeen. For the following decade, Doboom Tulku resided at the lama camp at Buxa Duar, in West Bengal, enduring harsh conditions until he joined the Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies at Sarnath in 1969. Continuing with his studies in Sarnath, he obtained a Geshe Acharya degree in 1972.

After obtaining his degree, he worked as a librarian at Tibet House in New Delhi, until he joined the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala as a librarian and research assistant in 1973. By 1981, having gained more experience, he returned to Tibet House New Delhi to serve as Director, with the mission of promoting Tibetan cultural heritage through Tibet House’s diverse range of programs. Doboom Tulku served as Director of Tibet House for 30 years.

Doboom Tulku has also worked with His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Private Office and has accompanied His Holiness the Dalai Lama on multiple visits abroad, from trips to the USA, USSR, Japan, and Mongolia. He has published widely, on topics ranging from Tibetan medicine to Buddhist meditation and the Chittamatra Mind-Only School of philosophy. He also has a personal interest in the effects of music for spiritual practice and worked hard at setting up the World Festival of Sacred Music, which became a global event. He passed on 28 January, 2024 in Drepung Loseling Monastery in south India. (Source Accessed Dec 6, 2023)

Kyabjé Dodrupchen Rinpoche, the Fourth Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Tubten Trinlé Pal Zangpo (Tib. ཐུབ་བསྟན་ཕྲིན་ལས་དཔལ་བཟང་པོ་, Wyl. thub bstan phrin las dpal bzang po) aka Jikmé Trinlé Palbar (1927-2022), was one of the most important masters in the Nyingma and Dzogchen traditions. As the fourth incarnation of Dodrupchen Jikmé Trinlé Özer, the heart-son of Jikmé Lingpa who revealed the Longchen Nyingtik cycle, Dodrupchen Rinpoche was the principal holder of the Longchen Nyingtik teachings.

He was born in 1927 in the Golok province of Dokham in the eastern part of Tibet....At the age of four, he travelled to the Dodrupchen monastery, where he was enthroned....

At Dodrupchen monastery, he built a Scriptural College, and he provided the woodblocks for printing the Seven Treasures of Longchenpa. He gave many major teachings, especially in the eastern part of Tibet.

On account of the changing political situation, Dodrupchen Rinpoche left Tibet and arrived in Sikkim in October 1957; from then on, he made Gangtok his permanent residence. Once again he subsidized the printing of many books, including Longchenpa's Seven Treasures and Trilogy of Finding Comfort and Ease. He has given many empowerments, transmissions and teachings in Sikkim, where he has two monasteries, in Bhutan, where he also heads a monastery, and in India and Nepal. Dodrupchen Rinpoche recognized the Seventh Dzogchen Rinpoche, whose enthronement was held in the Royal Temple at Gangtok in 1972...

He made a number of visits to the West, his first being in 1973, when he established a centre called the Maha Siddha Nyingmapa Centre in Massachusetts. Dodrupchen Rinpoche also visited Britain, France and Switzerland, and in 1975, gave the empowerment of Rigdzin Düpa at Sogyal Rinpoche's request in London. (Rigpa Wiki, Source Accessed February 2, 2022)

Prof. Lucia Dolce is Numata Professor of Japanese Buddhism in the Department of Religions and Philosophies, School of History, Religions and Philosophies at SOAS, University of London. She is the Chair of the Centre of Buddhist Studies and the Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions.

Lucia Dolce specialises in Japanese religions and thought, with a particular research interest in the religiosity of the medieval period, including millenarian ideas and prophetic writings, the esotericisation of religious practice, and kami-Buddhas associations. She is also interested in Chinese Buddhist thought and in popular religion in contemporary Japan. (Source Accessed Sep 21, 2021)

Dong Qichang (Chinese: 董其昌; pinyin: Dǒng Qíchāng; Wade–Giles: Tung Ch'i-ch'ang; courtesy name Xuanzai (玄宰); 1555–1636), was a Chinese painter, calligrapher, politician, and art theorist of the later period of the Ming dynasty.

Life as a scholar and calligrapher:
Dong Qichang was a native of Hua Ting (located in modern-day Shanghai), the son of a teacher and somewhat precocious as a child. At 12 he passed the prefectural Civil service entrance examination and won a coveted spot at the prefectural Government school. He first took the imperial civil service exam at seventeen, but placed second to a cousin because his calligraphy was clumsy. This led him to train until he became a noted calligrapher. Once this occurred he rose up the ranks of the imperial service passing the highest level at the age of 35. He rose to an official position with the Ministry of Rites.[1]

Landscape with Calligraphy, Tokyo National Museum:'
His positions in the bureaucracy were not without controversy. In 1605 he was giving the exam when the candidates demonstrated against him causing his temporary retirement. In other cases he insulted and beat women who came to his home with grievances. That led to his house being burned down by an angry mob. He also had the tense relations with the eunuchs common to the scholar bureaucracy. Dong's tomb in Songjiang District was vandalized during the Cultural Revolution, and his body dressed in official Ming court robes, was desecrated by Red Guards.

Painter:'
His work favored expression over formal likeness. He also avoided anything he deemed to be slick or sentimental. This led him to create landscapes with intentionally distorted spatial features. Still his work was in no way abstract as it took elements from earlier Yuan masters. His views on expression had importance to later "individualist" painters.

Art theory:'
In his art theoretical writings, Dong developed the theory that Chinese painting could be divided into two schools, the northern school characterized by fine lines and colors and the southern school noted for its quick calligraphic strokes. These names are misleading as they refer to Northern and Southern schools of Chan Buddhism thought rather than geographic areas. Hence a Northern painter could be geographically from the south and a Southern painter geographically from the north. In any event he strongly favored the Southern school and dismissed the Northern school as superficial or merely decorative.

His ideal of Southern school painting was one where the artist forms a new style of individualistic painting by building on and transforming the style of traditional masters. This was to correspond with sudden enlightenment, as favored by Southern Chan Buddhism. He was a great admirer of Mi Fu and Ni Zan. By relating to the ancient masters' style, artists are to create a place for themselves within the tradition, not by mere imitation, but by extending and even surpassing the art of the past. Dong's theories, combining veneration of past masters with a creative forward looking spark, would be very influential on Qing dynasty artists as well as collectors, "especially some of the newly rich collectors of Sungchiang, Huichou in Southern Anhui, Yangchou, and other places where wealth was concentrated in this period". Together with other early self-appointed arbiters of taste known as the Nine Friends, he helped determine which painters were to be considered collectible (or not). As Cahill points out, such men were the forerunners of today's art historians. His classifications were quite perceptive and he is credited with being "the first art historian to do more than list and grade artists." (Source Accessed July 14, 2023)

Gyurme Dorje (1950 – 5 February 2020) was a Scottish Tibetologist and writer. He was born in Edinburgh, where he studied classics (Latin and Greek) at George Watson's College and developed an early interest in Buddhist philosophy. He held a PhD in Tibetan Literature (SOAS) and an MA in Sanskrit with Oriental Studies (Edinburgh). In the 1970s he spent a decade living in Tibetan communities in India and Nepal where he received extensive teachings from Kangyur Rinpoche, Dudjom Rinpoche, Chatral Rinpoche, and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. In 1971 Dudjom Rinpoche encouraged him to begin translating his recently completed History of the Nyingma School (རྙིང་མའི་སྟན་པའི་ཆོས་འབྱུང་) and in 1980 his Fundamentals of the Nyingma School (བསྟན་པའི་རྣམ་གཞག) - together this was an undertaking that was to take twenty years, only reaching completion in 1991. In the 1980s Gyurme returned to the UK and in 1987 completed his 3 volume doctoral dissertation on the Guhyagarbhatantra and Longchenpa's commentary on this text at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London.

From 1991 to 1996 Gyurme held research fellowships at London University, where he worked with Alak Zenkar Rinpoche on translating (with corrections) the content of the Great Sanskrit Tibetan Chinese Dictionary to create the three volume Encyclopaedic Tibetan-English Dictionary. From 2007 until his death he worked on many translation projects, primarily as a Tsadra Foundation grantee. He has written, edited, translated and contributed to numerous important books on Tibetan religion and culture including The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History (2 vols.) (Wisdom, 1991), Tibetan Medical Paintings ( 2 vols.) (Serindia, 1992), The Tibet Handbook (Footprint, 1996), the first complete translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and A Handbook of Tibetan Culture (Shambhala, 1994). (Source Accessed Jul 14, 2020)

Geshe Pema Dorjee is an internationally recognized authority, scholar, and teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. His fluent English, keen intellect, clear and practical explanations, warm-hearted nature, and infectious sense of humor enrich his talks and discussions with meaning and inspiration.

He was born into a nomadic family in Tibet in 1951. They escaped from the invading Chinese, and he settled in Dharamsala, India, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile and the home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

From 1973 to 1981 at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics founded by H.H. the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, he completed an undergraduate degree and two Masters degrees in Buddhist Philosophy, one in Prajnaparamita (the Perfection of Wisdom) and one in Madhyamika (the Middle Way).

For the next 16 years, he dedicated himself to the Tibetan Children’s Village School located in Dharamsala. For nine of those years, he taught Tibetan Buddhism, language, and culture. In 1990, he was appointed Principal of the school, and from 1993 to 1997 he was its Director.

In 1995, he earned his Geshe degree at the Drepung Loseling Monastery.

Geshe Pema Dorjee served for two years as the Principal of the Tibetan Teachers Training Center. He was then named the first Principal of the College for Higher Tibetan Studies, and he remained in charge of that College from 1997 to 2002.

The Tibetan government-in-exile asked him to undertake various tasks. The Cabinet, for example, appointed him to the Higher Level Textbook Review Committee. His Holiness appointed him as a member of the Public Service Commission. The Department of Health appointed him as spiritual counselor to former political prisoners who had been tortured.

In 2001, H. H. the Dalai Lama asked Geshe Pema Dorjee to revive an important part of Tibetan Buddhism that had fallen into desuetude, the Bodong tradition. Fulfilling this task required him to establish both a scholarly project and a very practical one. To find the lost writings of that ancient tradition, to study them, translate them, and publish them, he founded in 2003 and continues to direct the Bodong Research and Publication Center in Dharamsala. To educate new monks in the Bodong tradition, he founded and continues to direct the Bodong monastery and school known as Porong Pelmo Choeding in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Although he insists that he is only a simple monk, Geshe Pema Dorjee lives the compassionate life about which he preaches. He travels to the most remote and impoverished regions of Himalayan India and Nepal. After a thorough analysis of what is most needed, he creates, organizes, directs, and raises funds for numerous humanitarian projects.

These projects include establishing schools, arranging medical care for the sick and injured, providing care for the elderly, creating an orphanage, supporting a drug rehabilitation center, educating villagers to protect them from human trafficking, creating a safe house for street girls, helping young people in Tibetan refugee camps, introducing new agricultural techniques, and providing safe water, toilets, and smokeless cookstoves.

Since 1997, he has donated much of his time to teaching and lecturing about Buddhist philosophy in countries around the world, including Sweden, England, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Finland, Norway, France, Estonia, India, Nepal, and Israel.

Since 2009, Geshe Pema Dorjee has lectured and taught in cities across the United States, including New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland, Miami, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Boston and Cambridge. (Source: Tibet House US)

Keith Dowman is a translator and teacher of Dzogchen. A student of the great Dzogchen lamas Dudjom Rinpoche and Kanjur Rinpoche, he has lived in Banares, India, and Kathmandu, Nepal, for 50 years. His translations include SkyDancer, and Longchenpa’s Natural Perfection and Spaciousness.

A cultural refugee from his native England, Keith Dowman arrived in Banares, India in 1966, after travelling overland from Europe. Apart from an occasional foray back to the West he has spent a lifetime in the sub-continent, engaged in existential buddha dharma. In India and Nepal, not always in Tibetan refugee society, he has lived as a yogin, monk, pilgrim, and then as a householder, and as a scholar and poet gloriously free from western academia and cultural institutions of all shapes and sizes.

In India in the ‘sixties he was fortunate enough to encounter the grandfather-lama refugees just after their arrival in India in the wake of the Chinese invasion of Tibet. In those heady years when the old lamas were totally receptive to the solicitation of western disciples seeking confirmation of the validity of their existential trajectories, he received initiation, empowerment, pith instruction and personal guidance from Dudjom Rinpoche Jigdral Yeshe Dorje and Kanjur Rinpoche Longchen Yeshe Dorje, who became his root gurus, among many other Nyingma lamas and lamas of other schools, notably Khamtrul Rimpoche and the 16th Karmapa Rikpai Dorje. As Chogyal Namkhai Norbu remarked "In communion with many great masters [Keith Dowman] has fortuitously absorbed the realization of Dzogchen."

Settled in Kathmandu, in the ‘eighties he translated the Rabalaisian hagiography of The Divine Madman (Drukpa Kunley) and also that of the Guru’s Consort, Yeshe Tsogyel, in Skydancer, both of which remain in print. Entering Tibet immediately after it opened to foreign travelers, his three years of seasonal trekking in central Tibet resulted in The Pilgrim’s Guide to Central Tibet. The Power Places of Kathmandu was also written in the ‘eighties, description of pilgrimage in the Kathmandu Valley. Masters of Mahamudra: the Legends of the Eighty-Four Mahasiddhas was the fruit of his connection with the Kagyu school. More recently, spending less time in the polluted Kathmandu Valley, leaving Vajrayana behind, he has concentrated exclusively on the translation of Dzogchen texts: The Flight of the Garuda, Natural Perfection, Maya Yoga, The Great Secret of Mind, and Spaciousness: Longchenpa’s Treasury of the Dharmadhatu. Guru Pema Here and Now, The Mythology of the Lotus-Born, his most recent book, reverts to the imagery of the myth of Padmasambhava to illustrate the reality of Dzogchen.

Teaching the Dharma since 1992, his original concern was to assist in bridge building from East to West, a conduit for the lamas’ buddha-dharma. Now that aim has been achieved, leaving even the Dzogchen that is embedded in Vajrayana behind, the essence of Dzogchen which he calls radical Dzogchen is his primary concern and the main content of his teaching.

Still based in Kathmandu, he leads a nomadic lifestyle, teaching Dzogchen nonmeditation worldwide. This Dzogchen, derived from the early Nyingma tantras, free of the tendency toward the spiritual materialism so evident in western Buddhism, nonculturally specific, easily assimilable into Western culture, can, he believes provide a key to a renaissance, or at least a reformation, of Western mysticism in the existential mold. (Source Accessed Feb 3, 2021)

Georges B. J. Dreyfus (born 1950 in Switzerland) is an academic in the fields of Tibetology and Buddhology, with a particular interest in Indian Buddhist philosophy. In 1985 he was the first Westerner to receive the Geshe Lharampa degree, the highest available within the Tibetan scholastic tradition.

He currently is Jackson Professor of Religion at Williams College, Massachusetts. (Source Accessed March 13, 2024)

Lama Palden was one of the first Western women to be authorized as a lama in 1986, by her primary teacher, Kalu Rinpoche, following her completion of the traditional Tibetan three year, three month retreat. She has been a student and practitioner of Buddhism and of Comparative Mysticism for over 40 years. She is the founding teacher of Sukhasiddhi Foundation http://www.sukhasiddhi.org in the SF Bay Area, a Tibetan Buddhist center in the Shangpa and Kagyu lineages. Lama Palden has a deep interest in helping to make the teachings and practices of Vajrayana Buddhism accessible and practical for Westerners in order to help students actualize our innate wisdom, love and joy. As a teacher, she is committed to each student's unique unfolding and blossoming.

In 1993 Lama Palden completed a Masters degree in Counseling Psychology at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley. After licensing as a psychotherapist, she engaged in facilitating clients psycho-spiritual integration and development, through bringing together understandings and methods from Buddhism and Psychology, as well as from the Diamond Heart work, that she engaged with and trained in for many years. (Source Accessed August 13, 2020)

Lama Tony is a very well-known practitioner, scholar, and translator who has spent over forty years of his life fully dedicated to studying, practising, teaching, and translating the Buddhist teachings. He has been a full-time Buddhist practitioner-scholar since 1973. He was a member of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche's Nalanda Translator Committee in which he retains honorary status. He was Tsoknyi Rinpoche's personal translator during the 1990's and has translated orally and in writing for many other great teachers during the years. He has been a member of several translation committees and has published or been involved in the publication of many Tibetan Buddhist texts.

Based on his long experience with Kagyu teachings, he has prepared many books on the Kagyu view, called "Other Emptiness", and on Mahamudra and the Kagyu teaching of it.

Tony has spent decades with the Nyingma teachings. In particular, he spent long periods in Tibet, receiving and practising the highest Dzogchen teachings in retreat. He has made a point of translating the key texts of the system for others who need accurate, reliable, and in-depth information about the practices of Dzogchen. His translation of the ultimate text of Longchen Nyingthig, known in Tibetan as "triyig yeshe lama" or "Guidebook to Highest Wisdom", has been highly praised by Tibetan teachers.
(Source Accessed Sep 2, 2020)

Nalinaksha Dutt (1893–1973), was an Indian scholar of Buddhism, professor of Sanskrit and Pali at the University of Calcutta and chaired The Asiatic Society, among other representative functions, as Vice-President of the Maha Bodhi Society. He was also a politician who served as Member of Parliament, representing West Bengal in the Rajya Sabha the upper house of India's Parliament representing the Indian National Congress. He is the author of numerous books on Buddhism.

Nalinaksha Dutt was born on 4 December 1893. He did his undergraduate studies at Chittagong College and the Presidency University, Kolkata. Initially interested in mathematics and physics, he was a student of Ashutosh Mukherjee, before discovering the Sanskrit and Pali languages with scholar Satish Chandra Vidyabhusan who also introduced him to Indian and Tibetan Buddhist texts. After graduation, he became a professor of Sanskrit and Pali at Judson College (which later, in 1920, became part of the University of Yangon). But Ashutosh Mukherjee, as a wise educator, perceived Dutt's real abilities and persuaded him to return to Calcutta in order to deepen his studies on Buddhism from the Sanskrit source texts, because at that time, most of the known Buddhist texts were translations from Tibetan. He met the scholar Sarat Chandra Das and the tibetan translator Kazi Dawa Samdup and they worked together.

In appreciation of Dutt’s researches in both the schools of buddhism, Calcutta University awarded him the Premchand Roychand Scholarship award and the doctor’s degree. Then he went to London, being admitted to the School of Oriental Studies, to prepare the D. Littérature, specialty Buddhism in Sanskrit. However, in the absence of a British Sanskrit scholar able to direct his work, the Belgian Indologist Louis de La Vallée-Poussin took on the task. Thus Dutt lived most of his time in Brussels, near his research master.

He defended his thesis in 1930, entitled: Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its relationship with the Hinayana, before renowned Western scholars, including Lionel Barnett, Fyodor Shcherbatskoy, who praised his work. His later works will be the subject of publications (the main ones are listed in the rest of the article), which will make him, with Lokesh Chandra, one of the main Indian scholars in Buddhism.

He has held many official positions: President (1959–1961), and Vice-President of The Asiatic Society, Vice-president of the Maha Bodhi Society (1959–1973). (Source Accessed Sep 30, 2022)

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche (b.1964) — the present Dzigar Kongtrul, Jigme Namgyel (འཛི་སྒར་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་འཇིགས་མེད་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་, Wyl. 'dzi sgar kong sprul 'jigs med rnam rgyal), was born in Northern India, shortly before the Tibetan community settlement at Bir was established by his father, the third Neten Chokling Rinpoche. When Rinpoche was just nine years old, his father passed away. Soon after this His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche recognized him as an emanation of Jamgön Kongtrul the Great and His Holiness the 16th Karmapa confirmed this. He was soon enthroned at Chokling Gompa in Bir.

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche grew up in a monastic environment and received extensive training in all aspects of Buddhist doctrine. In particular, he received the teachings of the Nyingma lineage, especially those of the Longchen Nyingtik, from his root teacher, His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Rinpoche also studied extensively under Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, and the great scholar Khenpo Rinchen.

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche then moved to the United States in 1989 with his family and began a five-year tenure as a professor of Buddhist philosophy at Naropa University (then Institute) in 1990. Not long after arriving in the United States, he founded Mangala Shri Bhuti, an organization dedicated to furthering the practice of the Longchen Nyingtik lineage. He established a mountain retreat centre, Longchen Jigme Samten Ling, in southern Colorado, where he spends much of his time in retreat and guides students in long-term retreat practice.

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche's students include Pema Chödrön, the best-selling buddhist author, his wife Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel, and his son Dungse Jampal Norbu. He is also an avid painter in the abstract expressionist tradition. (Source Accessed Dec 11, 2020)

The 7th Dzogchen Ponlop (Karma Sungrap Ngedön Tenpa Gyaltsen, born 1965) is an abbot of Dzogchen Monastery, founder and spiritual director of Nalandabodhi, founder of Nītārtha Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies, a leading Tibetan Buddhist scholar, and a meditation master. He is one of the highest tülkus in the Nyingma lineage and an accomplished Karma Kagyu lineage holder.

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche was born in 1965 at Rumtek Monastery (Dharma Chakra Center) in Sikkim, India. His birth was prophesied by the supreme head of the Kagyu lineage, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa, to Ponlop Rinpoche's parents, Dhamchö Yongdu, the General Secretary of the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa, and his wife, Lekshey Drolma. Upon his birth, he was recognized by the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa as the seventh in the line of Dzogchen Ponlop incarnations and was formally enthroned as the Seventh Dzogchen Ponlop at Rumtek Monastery in 1968.[1]

After receiving Buddhist refuge and bodhisattva vows from the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Dzogchen Ponlop was ordained as a novice monk in 1974. He subsequently received full ordination and became a bhikṣu, although he later returned his vows and is now a lay teacher.

Rinpoche received teachings and empowerments from the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Dilgo Khyentse, Kalu Rinpoche, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche (chief Abbot of the Kagyu lineage), Alak Zenkar Rinpoche, and Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, his root guru.

Ponlop Rinpoche began studying Buddhist philosophy at the primary school in Rumtek at age 12. In 1979 (when Rinpoche was fourteen), the 16th Karmapa proclaimed Ponlop Rinpoche to be a heart son of the Gyalwang Karmapa and a holder of his Karma Kagyu lineage. In 1980 on his first trip to the West, he accompanied the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa to Europe, United States, Canada, and Southeast Asia. While serving as the Karmapa's attendant, he also gave dharma teachings and assisted in ceremonial roles during these travels.[2]

In 1981, he entered the monastic college at Rumtek, Karma Shri Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies where he studied the fields of Buddhist philosophy, psychology, logic, and debate. During his time at Rumtek, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche worked for the Students' Welfare Union, served as head librarian, and was the chief-editor of the Nalandakirti Journal, an annual publication which brings together Eastern and Western views on Buddhism. Rinpoche graduated in 1990 as Ka-rabjampa from Karma Shri Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies in Rumtek Monastery. (Ka-rabjampa means "one with unobstructed knowledge of scriptures", the Kagyu equivalent of the Sakya and Gelug's geshe degree.) He simultaneously earned the degree of Acharya, or Master of Buddhist Philosophy, from Sampurnanant Sanskrit University. Dzogchen Ponlop has also completed studies in English and comparative religion at Columbia University in New York City. (Source Accessed Nov 19, 2019)

For further information about Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, visit his Official Website

Dōgen Zenji (道元禅師; 19 January 1200– 22 September 1253), also known as Dōgen Kigen (道元希玄), Eihei Dōgen (永平道元), Kōso Jōyō Daishi (高祖承陽大師), or Busshō Dentō Kokushi (仏性伝東国師), was a Japanese Buddhist priest, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan.

Originally ordained as a monk in the Tendai School in Kyoto, he was ultimately dissatisfied with its teaching and traveled to China to seek out what he believed to be a more authentic Buddhism. He remained there for five years, finally training under Tiantong Rujing, an eminent teacher of the Chinese Caodong lineage. Upon his return to Japan, he began promoting the practice of zazen (sitting meditation) through literary works such as Fukan zazengi and Bendōwa.

He eventually broke relations completely with the powerful Tendai School, and, after several years of likely friction between himself and the establishment, left Kyoto for the mountainous countryside where he founded the monastery Eihei-ji, which remains the head temple of the Sōtō school today.

Dōgen is known for his extensive writing including his most famous work, the collection of 95 essays called the Shōbōgenzō, but also Eihei Kōroku, a collection of his talks, poetry, and commentaries, and Eihei Shingi, the first Zen monastic code written in Japan, among others. (Source Accessed Jan 9, 2020)

Malcolm David Eckel is Professor of Religion and Director of the Institute for Philosophy and Religion at Boston University. He received a B.A. from Harvard, a B.A. and M.A. from Oxford, and a Ph.D. in the Study of Religion from Harvard. His scholarly interests include the history of Buddhist philosophy in India and Tibet, the relationship between Buddhism and other Indian religions, the expansion and adaptation of Buddhism in Asia and the West, Buddhist narrative traditions and their relationship to Buddhist ethics, and the connection between philosophical theory and religious practice. His teaching at Boston University has been recognized by the Metcalf Award for Teaching Excellence (1998), and he has served as the Distinguished Teaching Professor of the Humanities (2002-5). He also has served as Assistant Dean and Director of the Core Curriculum (2007-13), an integrated program in the liberal arts for first- and second-year students in the College of Arts and Sciences.

His publications include Bhāviveka and His Buddhist Opponents (Harvard); Buddhism: Origins, Beliefs, Practices, Holy Texts, Sacred Places (Oxford); To See the Buddha: A Philosopher’s Quest for the Meaning of Emptiness (Princeton); Jñānagarbha’s Commentary on the Distinction Between the Two Truths: An Eighth-Century Handbook of Madhyamaka Philosophy (State University of New York); and “Is There a Buddhist Philosophy of Nature?” in Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Buddhism and Ecology (Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions). He is the editor of two volumes of essays: India and The West: The Problem of Understanding (Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions) and Deliver Us from Evil (Continuum).

Before joining the faculty at Boston University, he served as Associate Professor at Harvard Divinity School and as Administrative Director of the Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions. He recently returned to Harvard to serve on the Visiting Committee of Harvard Divinity School. In 2013, he was invited to deliver a series of lectures entitled “Modes of Recognition: Aspects of Theory in Mahayana Buddhist Narrative” as Visiting Professor in Buddhist Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia. (Source Accessed July 14, 2023)

Heinrich Julius Eggeling (1842–1918) was Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Edinburgh from 1875 to 1914, second holder of its Regius Chair of Sanskrit, and Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, London.

Eggeling was translator and editor of the Satapatha Brahmana in 5 volumes of the monumental Sacred Books of the East series edited by Max Müller, author of the main article on Sanskrit in the Encyclopædia Britannica, and curator of the University Library from 1900 to 1913. In August 1914 he left for a vacation in his native Germany, but because of World War I, he was unable to return before his death in 1918. (Source Accessed Mar 22, 2021)

David Ellerton grew up in Denver, Colorado, and took his first Shambhala Training level in 1995 after reading several of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s books. A few years later he met Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche in Boulder and in 1999 participated in Seminary and Warriors Assembly. The following year he attended Kalapa Assembly. After a year on staff at Shambhala Mountain Center, he travelled with the Sakyong as a Continuity Kusung and Secretary (2001-2002). In 2004 he moved to Japan, where he taught English and continued his study of Japanese and Aikido, which he began practicing as an undergraduate student in Boulder.

Upon returning to the United States he enrolled in Naropa University’s M.A. program in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism (Shedra Track), and began his study of Tibetan. During this time he received the Vajrayogini Abhisheka from the Sakyong. After graduating, he spent much of 2008 in both India and Nepal studying Tibetan and receiving commentary on the Uttaratantra Shastra at Pullahari Monastery. In 2008 he began a Ph.D. program in Religious Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. He is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at UCSB and is conducting his dissertation research on Tibetan prophecy (lung bstan) at the Central University of Tibetan Studies in India. (Source Accessed May 26, 2015)

DMITRY ERMAKOV was born in 1967 in Leningrad, Soviet Union, and trained as a classical musician from the age of six. He was raised in a highly cultural environment, attending after-school classes on ancient history, mythology and art history at the prestigious Hermitage Museum. During his summer holidays he often participated in archaeological digs led by his aunt, the former Head of Archaeology at Kiev University. In 1987 Dmitry joined the University of Leningrad's expedition to Khakassia near the Tuvan (Tyvan) border to excavate Scythian Kurgans. This was his first trip to Siberia.

His interest in Buddhism began in his childhood, with a book called Gods of the Lotus by Parfionov. The book details the author's trip to the Himalayas and it opened up a whole new world of deities and religions. Later, this interest was combined with martial arts based on Taoism and Zen philosophy, and Qi Gong, disciplines which were strictly forbidden in the Soviet Union. It was only with the coming of Perestroika in 1989 that Dmitry was able to meet Buddhist masters: receiving a blessing for the Lotus Sutra from a Japanese Zen master; and then teachings and initiations from a Tibetan Buddhist lamas: Bakula Rinpoche (1989), Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoches (1991), Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche (1992).

In 1993 Dmitry moved to the UK and in 1995 he met the great Bönpo master Yongdzin Lopon Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. He has been practising Yungdrung Bon and attending Yongdzin Rinpoche's teachings ever since.

Dmitry first visited Buryatia in 1990 where he struck up a deep friendship with the Buddhist thangka-painter Batodalai Doogarov as well as with a several of the local bo and utgan shamans.

Welcomed into their circle, Dmitry was able to gain unique insight into the Buryatian spiritual tradition of Bo Murgel, insight which developed into a detailed study of the similarities and differences between this ancient tradition and Yungdrung Bon. With the patient help of Yongdzin Rinpoche, Dmitry spent years researching a large anthology, Bo and Bon: Ancient Shamanic Traditions of Siberia and Tibet in their Relation to the Teachings of a Central Asian Buddha, (2008), which sheds new light on both traditions.

Dmitry went on to study Tibetan at Oxford University with Prof. Charles Ramble (2009-2010) and, as well as having articles published in both English and Russian, has been invited to lecture in Oxford, London, St. Petersburg, Vilnius, Cagliari, Budapest etc. His knowledge of Tibetan brings a new level of scholarship to the books and transcripts he and his wife Carol produce for the international Bonpo sangha.

Dmitry currently lives in the North Pennines, UK, where he works as a freelance translator. Alongside his work for the Bon tradition, he is currently composing pieces for a new fusion album.

Lama Tsering Everest was one of the main students of Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, who recognized her as an emanation of Tara and a holder of the Red Tara lineage.

Born in the U.S.A., Lama Tsering has served Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche as his translator for more than 11 years. After completing a three year retreat in 1995, she was ordained as a lama and recognized by Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche as a holder of the Red Tara lineage, authorized to give teachings and empowerments. In the same year she was invited to teach in Brazil where she moved to shortly after.

She teaches and conducts retreats in many cities across Brazil, Chile, New Zealand and Australia as well as returning each year to fulfill the requests of her students in North America.

Lama Tsering is the resident lama and director of Chagdud Gonpa Odsal Ling in São Paulo and is currently coordinating the construction of Odsal Ling's temple in Cotia, Brasil, along with her husband Lama Padma Norbu. (Source: Rigpa Wiki)

Bernard Faure, Kao Professor in Japanese Religion, received his Ph.D. (Doctorat d’Etat) from Paris University (1984). He is interested in various aspects of East Asian Buddhism, with an emphasis on Chan/Zen and Tantric or esoteric Buddhism. His work, influenced by anthropological history and cultural theory, has focused on topics such as the construction of orthodoxy and heterodoxy, the Buddhist cult of relics, iconography, sexuality and gender. His current research deals with the mythico-ritual system of esoteric Buddhism and its relationships with medieval Japanese religion. He has published a number of books in French and English. His English publications include: The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism (Princeton 1991), Chan Insights and Oversights: An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Tradition (Princeton 1993), Visions of Power: Imagining Medieval Japanese Buddhism (Princeton 1996), The Red Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality (Princeton 1998), The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender (Princeton 2003), and Double Exposure (Stanford 2004). (Source Accessed Jun 10, 2019).

He recently completed a two-volume work on Japanese Gods and Demons: The Fluid Pantheon: Medieval Japanese Gods, Volume I and Protectors and Predators: Medieval Japanese Gods, Volume 2 (Both volumes by University of Hawai'i Press, 2015).

Fazang is Zhiyan’s most accomplished and influential student, and became the third patriarch of Huayan. He is responsible for systematizing and extending Zhiyan’s teaching, and for securing the prominence of Huayan-style Buddhism at the imperial court. He is known especially for his definitive commentaries on the Avatamsaka Sutra and Awakening of Faith in Mahayana, and for making Huayan doctrines accessible to laity with familiar technologies such as mirror halls and wood-block printing. These contributions support the traditional regard for Fazang as the third patriarch of the Huayan School.

Fazang’s ancestors came from Sogdiana (a center for trade along the Silk Road, located in what is now parts of Uzbekistan and Tajikestan), but he was born in the Tang dynasty capital of Chang’an (now Xi’an), where his family had become culturally Chinese. Fazang was a fervently religious adolescent. Following a then-popular custom that took self-immolation as a sign of religious devotion, Fazang burned his fingers before a stupa at the age of 16. After becoming a monk, he assisted Xuanzang—famous for his pilgrimage to India—in translating Buddhist works from Sanskrit into Chinese. Fazang had doctrinal differences with Xuanzang, though, so he later became a disciple of Zhiyan, probably around 663 CE.

Zhiyan’s access to the imperial court gave Fazang access to Empress Wu, with whom he quickly gained favor. He undertook a variety of public services, such as performing rain-prayer rituals and collaborating in various translation projects. He traveled throughout northern China, teaching the Avatamsaka Sutra and debating Daoists. He intervened in a 697 military confrontation with the Khitans, gaining further favor when Empress Wu ascribed to his ritual services an instrumental role in suppressing the rebellion. In addition, Fazang provided information to undermine plots by some of the empress’ advisors to secure power after her death. This secured Fazang’s status—and the prominence of Huayan teachings—with subsequent rulers. (Source Accessed Jan 28, 2020)

Rev. George Kosho Finch is a Shingon Buddhist minister. Rev. Finch took Tokudo (Initiation) in Shingon Buddhism in 1999. In 2000 he traveled to Japan for the Jukai (Reciept of Precepts on Mt. Koya), and in 2006 he completed Denpo-Kanjo (Final Ordination) on Mt. Koya, Japan. In 2009 Rev. Finch completed the Ichiryu Denju, complete transmission of the teachings.

Since that time he has led meditation groups in Portland Oregon, and served as assistant minister with the Koyasan Shingon Mission of Hawaii. Rev. Finch earned his Bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University, and his Juris Doctorate from Willamette University College of Law.

Rev. Finch’s goal, and the purpose of the [Shingon Buddhist] Foundation, is to maintain the lineage and traditional Shingon practice, while finding new and innovative ways to share the teachings (such as through yoga and qigong) with those are who are new to Buddhism, and those who may have practiced their whole lives.

In 2019, Rev. Finch began leading Henjyoji Shingon Buddhist Temple in Portland, Oregon. Henjyoji Temple has been in its current location since 1951. Ensuring the temple continues to offer opportunities for spiritual growth and development into a new millennia. (Adapted from Source Nov 19, 2020)

After a career as a journalist based in New York and Hong Kong, Damchö Diana Finnegan ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1999. In 2009, she received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a thesis on gender and ethics in Sanskrit and Tibetan narratives about Buddha’s direct female disciples in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya.

After completing her dissertation she worked closely with the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, serving as co-editor on various publications, including Interconnected: Embracing Life in a Global Society and The Heart Is Noble: Changing the World from the Inside Out.

In 2007, she co-founded Dharmadatta Nuns’ Community (Comunidad Dharmadatta), a community of Spanish-speaking Buddhist nuns, based first in India and later in Mexico. Together with the other Dharmadatta nuns, she leads a large Latin American community with a commitment to gender and environmental justice as part of its spiritual practice.

At the same time, Damchö continues to participate in academic circles, presenting at conferences, editing books, and engaging in various research projects. The most recent publication on which she collaborated, a translation from Sanskrit and Tibetan of the manual for conferring full ordination to women, is forthcoming from Hamburg University’s Numata Center for Buddhist Studies.

Damchö has served as a board member of Maitripa College since its founding in 2005. (Source Accessed Sep 23, 2021)

Louis Finot (1864 in Bar-sur-Aube - 1935 in Toulon) was a French archeologist and researcher, specialising in the cultures of Southeast Asia. A former director of the Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, his contribution to the study of Khmer history, architecture and epigraphy is widely recognised.

A bachelor of law and letters, Finot was admitted to the École Nationale des Chartes in 1886. He left it two years later with the title of palaeographer. He worked initially as a trainee then as an assistant librarian with the French National Library and undertook studies of Sanskrit. In 1898, he was named director of the archaeological mission in Indochina, which would become in 1900 the Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO). In 1933 he became a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. (Source Accessed Jan 8, 2021)

• 1961 born in Staveren on March 28
• 1981-1986 sailor at shipping companies, Rotterdam
• 1986-1993 studied Indology at Leiden University
• 1991 studied at Hamburg University
• 1991-1996 studied philosophy at Leiden University
• 1997-2002 research fellow at the CNWS, Leiden University
• 2000-2002 substitute lecturer Buddhology and Indian philosophy, Leiden University
• 2004 PhD under the supervision of T.E. Vetter and Th.C.W. Oudemans, Leiden University
• 2002-present teacher at Stanislas College, Pijnacker

Antonino Forte is professor of East Asian religions and thought at the Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples, and is concurrently director of the Italian School of East Asian Studies in Kyoto. He was a member of the Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient between 1976 and 1985. He is the author of Political Propaganda and Ideology in China at the End of the Seventh Century and Mingtang and Buddhist Utopias in the History of the Astronomical Clock, and the editor of Tang China and Beyond. His current research focuses on East Asian Buddhist philosophies of history and the historical relevance of the “borderland complex” in East Asian countries.

Source: Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha

Philippe Édouard Foucaux (15 September 1811 – 20 May 1894) was a French tibetologist. He published the first Tibetan grammar in French and occupied the first chair of Tibetan Studies in Europe.

He was born in the town of Angers on 15 September to [a] merchant family. At the age of 27, he left for Paris to study Indology with Eugène Burnouf. After becoming aware of the work of Sándor Kőrösi Csoma, he studied Tibetan by himself for two years. After this he was appointed as a Tibetan teacher at the École des langues orientales where he gave his inaugural lecture on January 31, 1842. Funding for the position was canceled but Foucaux continued to instruct his students thereafter on a pro bono basis. Some of his most well-known students include Léon Feer [fr], William Woodville Rockhill, and Alexandra David-Néel.

Foucaux was a member of the Sociéte d'Ethnographie. After France became the Second Empire, Foucaux was elected as a member of the Collège de France. Foucaux was married to Mary Summer, born Marie Filon, who also did work as a buddhologist. He was a corresponding member of the American Oriental Society from 1865. A number of Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese manuscripts and printed books from his library were acquired by the National Library of France and are preserved there. (Source Accessed July 29, 2021)

David Lazar Friedmann (b. Amsterdam 26.2.1903 — d. London 11.4.1984) was a Dutch Buddhist scholar and Art Historian in the U.K. He was born into a Jewish family engaged in the diamond trade. After school in Amsterdam he studied Sanskrit for three years at Utrecht (under Caland), then the history of religion, Sanskrit and Indian art and archaeology at Leiden (under Vogel). He earned his Ph.D. in 1936 from Leiden. After a year of further studies at Oxford (under Johnston), he became Lecturer in Buddhist Studies at Leiden in 1938. As a jew he was dismissed after German occupation in 1940, but continued to teach clandestinely. Leaving the country in 1941, he joined the Netherlands Information Bureau in New York, writing and lecturing on the history and culture of the Netherlands, India, and Indonesia. From 1946-50 he served as Professor at the University of Indonesia in Batavia/Jakarta, and he taught Sanskrit, Buddhist philosophy, and Indian art. From 1950 he was Lecturer and from 1959 he was a Reader at S.O.A.S. in London, and also taught at King’s College. He retired in 1970, but continued lecturing. He was married to Helène (d. 1976), a ceramic artist of Russian-Jewish origin, and had two daughters.

Friedman took great care supervising his students and published himself very little. Among his students were Lohuizen-De Leeuw, D. Killingley, and Rita Gupta.

Publications: Diss. [Sthiramati:] Madhyāntavibhāgaṭīkā. Analysis of the Middle Path and the Extremes. 143 p. Utrecht 1937 (translated). (Adapted from Source June 29, 2023)

Marie Friquegnon was born in 1943, grew up in Brooklyn and attended the local Catholic school. She went to high school at the Convent of the Sacred heart, 91st Street, Manhattan. During this time she studied theology and scholastic philosophy. She then attended Barnard College where she majored in philosophy. She also took courses at Columbia University. The teachers who influenced her in philosophy were Sidney Morgenbesser, Richard Taylor, Arthur Danto, David Sidorsky, Joh Herman Randall, Mary Mothersill and Jean Potter; in religion, Jacob Taubes and Anton Zigmund-Cerbu. She took her masters and doctorate at New York University. Finishing in 1974, she studied Hegel and Marx with Sidney Hook. Her thesis advisor was a Marxist philosopher, Chauncy Downes. But the most important philosophical influence on her at N.Y.U. was the analytic philosopher Raziel Abelson. Following his suggestion she wrote a masters thesis defending the possibility of free will and a doctoral thesis defending the meaningfulness of religious belief.

She worked from 1965 to 1967 as a caseworker with the Department of Welfare. From 1967 to 1968 she taught part-time at NYC Community College, Long Island University, Brooklyn College and N.Y.U. In 1969 she started to teach at William Paterson. She continues to teach there now as a Professor of Philosophy.

In 1981 Marie Friquegnon began to develop what had been a longstanding interest in Buddhist philosophy. She returned to Columbia University to audit a course in Sanskrit and to take a course in Tibetan. She continues to study at the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center and she is involved in some translation projects there. She is also interested in philosophy of childhood, and has given lectures and published on children's rights and the nature of childhood. She lives in Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan. (Adapted from Source Apr 14, 2021)

Charlotte Davis Furth (January 22, 1934 – June 19, 2022) was an American scholar of Chinese history. She was a professor at California State University, Long Beach, and at the University of Southern California. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fulbright fellowship for her research, and published several books.

Furth taught history for 23 years at the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), until 1989, and then for 18 more years at the University of Southern California (USC). In 1972 she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. She taught at Beijing University in 1981 and 1982, one of the first American Fulbright fellows admitted to teach in China after the Cultural Revolution. She retired with emeritus status from USC in 2008. In 2012 she was honored by the Association for Asian Studies with an award for her "distinguished contributions to Asian Studies." (Source Accessed June 19, 2023)

The Ninth Gangkar Lama, Karma Shedrub Chokyi Sengge (gangs dkar bla ma 09 karma bshad sgrub chos kyi seng ge) was born in a place called Sade (sa sde) in Minyak (mi nyag). His father was named Draknak Trinle (brag nag 'phrin las) and his mother was named Draknak Drolma (brag nag sgrol ma).

When he was three years old, the Fifteenth Karmapa, Khakhyab Dorje (karma pa 15 mkha' khyab rdo rje, 1870-1921) sent a letter from Lhasa recognizing him as the reincarnation of the Eighth Gangkar Lama, Karma Tsering Wangpo (gangs dkar bla ma 08 karma tshe ring dbang po, d.u.). At that time, Khamsum Drakgon Monastery, the seat of the lineage, was not able to accommodate him as it only had a poorly built prayer hall and a deity shrine, so he was placed in a temple near the monastery.

After the recognition procedures, a monk named Lama Norbu (bla ma nor bu), an expert in monastic rituals, was appointed as his private tutor to teach him how to read at the age of five.

During his childhood, he listened to tales told by the elders in the village where the temple was situated, including those drawn from the lives of the saints such as Tangtong Gyelpo (thang stong rgyal po, 1361-1485). He developed a keen interest in Kagyu masters and requested to study in one of the major monasteries of the tradition. His tutor Lama Norbu also told the leaders of the monastery that the young lama had learned all the things he had to teach.

In 1910 he was sent to Pelpung (dpal spungs) Monastery where his previous incarnation had also studied. There he met with the Eleventh Situ, Pema Wangchok Gyelpo (si tu pad ma dbang mchog rgyal po, 1886-1952), and other leaders of the monastery. He received novice monastic vows from a lama named Dechen Ngedon Tendzin Rabgye (bde chen nges don bstan 'dzin rab rgyas) and studied the Vinaya texts under a lama named Tsewang Peljor (tshe dbang dpal 'byor). He continued his education with Khenpo Zhenga, Zhenpen Chokyi Nangwa (mkhan po gzhan dga gzhan phan chos kyi snang ba, 1871-1927), who was then at Pelpung establishing the monastic college.

At the age of twenty-one he was fully ordained by Dechen Ngedon Tendzin Rabgye. He continued to study Buddhist topics, as well as medicine, poetry, and grammar.

He then traveled to U-Tsang to continue his training at Tsurpu (mtshur phu) Monastery. There he received tantric transmissions and teachings from the Fifteenth Karmapa, Khakhyab Dorje.

After returning to Pelpung Monastery, he received teachings and transmissions from teachers there, such as Situ Pema Wangchok Gyelpo. For several years he served as summer retreat master at Pelpung. At the request of Pema Wangchuk Gyelpo and Khenpo Zhenga he wrote the Exposition of the Special Praise to the Buddha (khyad par 'phags bstod kyi 'grel pa) and the Answers of the Scholars' Necklace (dris lan mkhas pa'i mgul rgyan) among others works. These do not appear to be extant, although printing blocks for the first work are said to have been carved.

In 1922, at the age of thirty, he returned to Khamsum Drakgon. He expanded the existing monasteries and established new institutions. In 1925 he was invited to Minyak Riku (mi nyag ri khud) Monastery where he started a school and taught modern Tibetan studies for three years. Later, in 1940, he started a school in Khamsum Drakgon Monastery also for modern Tibetan studies. His students included men from various ethnic backgrounds.

In 1930 he was invited to attend the enthronement ceremony of the Sixteenth Karmapa, Rangjung Rikpai Dorje (karma pa 16 rang byung rig pa'i rdo rje, 1921-1981) and be his private tutor. He taught the Karmapa for about a year. Although he was asked to stay and continue to teach, he insisted that he was more needed in Minyak than in U-Tsang. He also brought many monks studying in U-Tsang back to Minyak with him. In Minyak he worked as a teacher, astrologer, and a traditional physician.

He traveled to China twice before the Communists took over. He first traveled in China from 1936 until 1939 and then again from 1945 until 1949. He gave many teachings in various places including Chengdu, Chongqing, Jiangxi, and Beijing. In 1953 he was asked to teach at the Central Nationalities University (中央民族大学) in Beijing and he taught there for three years while also editing official documents translated into Tibetan. He passed away in 1957.

(Source: Treasury of Lives)

Jay L. Garfield chairs the Philosophy department and directs Smith’s logic and Buddhist studies programs and the Five College Tibetan Studies in India program. He is also visiting professor of Buddhist philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, professor of philosophy at Melbourne University and adjunct professor of philosophy at the Central University of Tibetan Studies.

Garfield’s research addresses topics in the foundations of cognitive science and the philosophy of mind; the history of Indian philosophy during the colonial period; topics in ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of logic; methodology in cross-cultural interpretation; and topics in Buddhist philosophy, particularly Indo-Tibetan Madhyamaka and Yogācāra.

Garfield’s most recent books are Getting Over Ourselves: How to be a Person Without a Self (2022), Knowing Illusion: Bringing a Tibetan Debate into Contemporary Discourse (with the Yakherds 2021, Buddhist Ethics: A Philosophical Exploration (2021), ̛What Can’t Be Said: Paradox and Contradiction in East Asian Thought (with Yasuo Deguchi, Graham Priest, and Robert Sharf 2021), The Concealed Influence of Custom: Hume’s Treatise From the Inside Out (OUP 2019), Minds Without Fear: Philosophy in the Indian Renaissance (with Nalini Bhushan, 2017), Dignāga’s Investigation of the Percept: A Philosophical Legacy in India and Tibet (with Douglas Duckworth, David Eckel, John Powers, Yeshes Thabkhas and Sonam Thakchöe, 2016) Engaging Buddhism: Why it Matters to Philosophy (2015), Moonpaths: Ethics and Emptiness (with the Cowherds, 2015) and (edited, with Jan Westerhoff), Madhyamaka and Yogācāra: Allies or Rivals? (2015). (Source Accessed on January 19, 2024)

Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy

Department of Philosophy Smith College Northampton, MA 01063 USA

Kyabje Nawang Gehlek Rimpoche (Tibetan: སྐྱབས་རྗེ་དགེ་ལེགས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།, Wylie: skyabs rje dge legs rin po che/) was a Tibetan Buddhist lama born in Lhasa, Tibet on October 26, 1939. His personal name was Gelek; kyabje and rimpoche, are titles meaning "teacher" (lit., "lord of refuge") and "precious," respectively. He was a tulku, an incarnate lama of Drepung Monastic University, where he received the scholastic degree of Geshe Lharampa, the highest degree given, at the exceptionally young age of 20. The 14th Dalai Lama said "he completed his traditional Buddhist training as a monk in Tibet prior to the Chinese Takeover."

Considered "an important link to the great lineages of Tibet’s great masters, especially of the Geluk school. Known more famously for the Tibetans as Nyakre Khentrul Rinpoche, Rinpoche had been instrumental in reprinting many of the Geluk texts in the 1970s, and also remained an important object of affection for both Kyabje Ling Rinpoche and Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche. Of course, his emergence as one of the great Tibetan teachers in the West has also been a source of inspiration for many.” Gelek Rimpoche was a nephew of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. He was tutored by many of the same masters who tutored the current 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso.

In 1959, Gelek Rimpoche fled to India from Tibet and gave up monastic life. He was one of the first students of the Young Lamas Home School. He was director of Tibet House in New Delhi, India and a radio host at All India Radio. He conducted over 1000 interviews, compiling an oral history of the fall of Tibet to the Communist Chinese. He was the founder and president of Jewel Heart, "a spiritual, cultural, and humanitarian organization that translates the ancient wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism into contemporary life."

He moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1987 to teach Buddhism. He became an American citizen and founded Buddhist communities in Ann Arbor, Bloomfield Hills, Chicago, Cleveland, Nebraska, New York, Maylaysia and The Netherlands.

Beat-poet Allen Ginsberg was among the more prominent of Jewel Heart's members. Ginsberg met with Gelek Rinpoche through the modern composer Philip Glass in 1989. Allen and Philip jointly staged benefits for the Jewel Heart organization. Professor Robert Thurman, Joe Liozzo, and Glenn Mullin are also Jewel Heart members and frequent lecturers.

Gelek Rinpoche died on February 15, 2017 in Ann Arbor, Michigan after undergoing surgery the previous month. (Source Accessed Aug 25, 2020)

Gharungwa Lhai Gyeltsen (g+ha rung ba lha'i rgyal mtshan) was born at Nyetang (snye thang) in 1319.

At five years of age he received ordination as a novice monk at Kumbumtang (sku 'bum thang) and began studies of the monastic code. For two years he also studied Prajñāpāramitā, epistemology, and Abhidharma. Then he traveled to many different monasteries in U for further studies in the same subjects and others such as the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra and the Five Treatises of Maitreya. While at the great Karma Kaygu monastery of Tsurpu (mtshur phu), he received the transmission of several tantras from the clairvoyant yogin Tokden Drakseng (rtogs ldan grags seng), who also recognized him as an incarnation of the Indian master Aryadeva.

When he was twenty years old Gharungwa traveled to the Tsang region, where he reached a high level of expertise in the treatises of the vehicle of the perfections, epistemology, Abhidharma, and the monastic code under the teacher Konchok Sangpo (slob dpon dkon bzang, d.u.) at Drakram Monastery (brag ram). He also studied and taught at many other places before arriving at the great monastery of Sakya (sa skya), where he studied the same subjects under the master Jamyang Chokyi Gyeltsen ('jam dbyangs chos kyi rgyal mtshan, d.u.), but also received the Tantra Trilogy of Hevajra and the Bodhisattva Trilogy.

He then studied at Pelteng Monastery (dpal steng dgon) under the master Rinchen Zangpo (rin chen bzang po, d.u.), and next traveled to the Kagyu monastery of Ralung (ra lung dgon), where he received many tantric transmissions such as the initiations of Hevjara in both the Sakya and the Kagyu traditions and the Doha Trilogy of the great Indian adept Saraha. While at Ralung, he heard about Dolpopa Sherab Gyeltsen (dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan) and was filled with faith.

When Gharungwa was thirty-two years old he arrived at Jonang Monastery (jo nang dgon) and met Dolpopa. He offered the great master a white conch shell and other gifts and received many initiations such as Kālacakra and Guhyasamāja, and all the guiding instructions such as the six-branch yoga. He gained exceptional experience in meditation, actually beheld Avalokiteśvara and his pure land, and experienced pure visions such as the transformation of himself into a buddha and the light rays of his own body illuminating the entire three worlds. For many years Gharungwa received from Dolpopa a number of profound teachings such as the Bodhisattva Trilogy and the ten sutras of definitive meaning.

Gharungwa also received special transmissions from some of Dolpopa's other major disciples: from Kunpang Chodrak Pelzang (kun spangs chos grags dpal bzang, 1283-1363) he received the Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakra Tantra seven times, the instructions of the six-branch yoga, Nāropa's commentary on the Sekoddesha, and so forth; from Jonang Lotsāwa Lodro Pel (jo nang lo tsA wa blo gros dpal, 1299-c.1353) he received the Vimalaprabhā and other tantric teachings; from Mati Paṇchen (ma ti paN chen blo gros rgyal mtshan, 1294-1376) he received many teachings such as the Five Treatises of Maitreya and the Lamdre (lam 'bras); from Chokle Namgyel (phyogs las rnam rgyal, 1306-1386) and Nyawon Kunga Pel (nya dbon nun dga' dpal, 1285-1379) he received many transmissions such as the Lamdre in both the Sakya tradition and the Shang tradition, and the Bodhisattva Trilogy.

Gharungwa then ascended to the monastic seat of Gharung Monastery (g+ha rung), where he taught for many years. He was eventually offered the hermitage of Namkha Dzod (nam mkha' mdzod) and took up residence there, teaching the Vimalaprabhā and various other topics.

He passed away in 1401.

Robert Gimello is a historian of Buddhism with special interests also in the Theology of Religions and in Comparative Mysticism.

In the field of Buddhist Studies he concentrates especially on Buddhism in East Asia (China, Korea, & Japan), most particularly on the Buddhism of medieval and early modern China. The traditions of Buddhist thought and practice on which he especially focuses are Huáyán/Hwaŏm/Kegon 華嚴 (The “Flower-Ornament” Tradition), Chán 禪 (Zen), and Mijiao/Milgyo/Mikkyō 密教 (Esoteric/Tantric Buddhism), in the study of which he is particularly concerned with the relationships between Buddhist thought or doctrine and Buddhist contemplative and liturgical practice.

In the area of Theology of Religions, against the background of contemporary debates about the theological implications of religious pluralism, and in critical response to major trends in the ongoing Buddhist-Christian dialogue, he is concerned chiefly with the question of what Catholic Christian theology can, should, or must make of Buddhism.

In the field of the study of mysticism, he joins regularly in the debates, chiefly among philosophers of religion, about the differences and similarities among various mystical traditions and about the relationship between mystical experience and the practices and beliefs that comprise religious traditions. (Source Accessed June 12, 2019)

Gherardo Gnoli (6 December 1937 in Rome – 7 March 2012 in Cagli) was a historian of Italian religions and Iran expert.

Gherardo Gnoli has been since 1996 the president of the Italian Institute for Africa and the East (IsIAO). He was also the head of the Public Counsel Institute and later the Italian Institute for the Middle and the Far East (ISMEO), which had been founded in 1933 by Giovanni Gentile and Giuseppe Tucci. He headed the Italy-Africa Institute (IIA), which had been founded in 1906 under the name of "Italian Colonial Institute" by Italian explorers, academics and diplomats.

He was a professor of Iranian philosophy at the University of Naples "L'Orientale" (from 1965 to 1993, where he became the chancellor from 1971 to 1978 and the head of religious history of Iran and Central Asia at La Sapienza University of Rome (from 1993 to 2008). In addition he was the president of the same academy from 1979 to 1995. From 1995 until his death, Gherardo Gnoli was also the president of the Italian Society for the History of Religions. (Source Accessed Aug 4, 2023)

Despite the variations in the titles preceding the personal name, dPal-dbyangs, it seems certain that they all refer to one personage who belongs to the clan gNyan/bsNyan and who apparently was a renowned master learned in Mahāyoga tantras and rDzogs chen doctrines . . .

     . . . However, nothing is known about his life. According to Tāranātha, he lived in Kha-ra sgo-bstun, a district in gTsang where Tāranātha himself was born and gNyan is said to have founded a temple called g.Yung-drung-gi lha-khang in 'Dam-chen.

     . . . gNyan dPal-dbyangs, in later sources is considered to be a disciple of Lo-tsā-ba gNyags Jñanakumāra alias Jo-bo Zhang-drung and one of the teachers of gNubs Sangs-rgyas ye-shes, the author of the SM [Bsam gtan mig sgron] . . .

(Samten Karmay, The Great Perfection (rDzogs chen): A Philosophical and Meditative Teaching of Tibetan Buddhism, Brill's Tibetan Studies Library 11 [Leiden: Brill, 2007], 67–69.

Zuisei is a writer and lay Zen teacher based in Playa del Carmen in the south of Mexico. Zuisei lived and trained full time at Zen Mountain Monastery from 1995 to 2018, and was a monk for fourteen of those years. In 2018 she received shiho or dharma transmission (empowerment to teach) from Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Roshi, and after a short stint in New York City, moved back to Mexico, where she is originally from, and began teaching virtually.

She has served as the Teachings Editor at the Buddhist journal Tricycle, and her dharma writing has been featured there as well as in Lion's Roar, Buddhadharma, and Parabola. Her books include Still Running: The Art of Meditation in Motion and the children's book Weather Any Storm.

As Ocean Mind Sangha's Guiding Teacher, Zuisei continues to welcome students for group and private teaching. (Source Accessed April 25, 2024)

Dr. V. V. Gokhale was a professor of Buddhist studies in India. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Heidelberg and taught at Fergusson College from 1932 to 1959. He was appointed Reader in the Department of Buddhist studies at the University of Delhi and then later became Professor and Head of the department.

Dr. Gokhale maintained an interest in the Pratītyasamutpāda-sūtra and Madhyamaka philosophy throughout his career. Among his numerous articles, he wrote several on Bhāvaviveka's Tarkajvālā commentary on Nāgārjuna's Madhyamakaśāstra, and he published the Abhidharmakoṣa-kārikās of Vasubandhu. (Source: Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 74, no. 1/4 (1993), 349–51)

Summary

Daniel Gold has broad interests in South Asian religion and culture, with research specializations in old Hindi poetry, early modern North Indian devotional cultures, and contemporary religious life. He has also written on the study of religion.

Research Focus

Gold is currently revisiting the early modern Hindi saint-poets known collectively as "sants." Situating the religious cultures that have grown up around particular figures in their separate historical contexts, he seeks to understand factors affecting the diversity of the religious cultures that emerged around specific sants and continuities in the development of their tradition as a whole. (Source Accessed Feb 13, 2023)

Ari Goldfield is a Buddhist teacher. He had the unique experience of being continuously in the training and service of his own teacher, Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, for eleven years. From 1998-2009, Ari served as Khenpo Rinpoche’s translator and secretary, accompanying Rinpoche on seven round-the-world teaching tours. Ari received extensive instruction from Rinpoche in Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and teaching methods, and meditated under Rinpoche’s guidance in numerous retreats. In 2006, Khenpo Rinpoche sent Ari on his own tour to teach philosophy, meditation, and yogic exercise in Europe, North America, and Asia. In 2007, Ari moved with Rinpoche to Seattle, where he served and helped care for him until Rinpoche moved back to Nepal in 2009. Ari now teaches in Rinpoche’s Karma Kagyu lineage, with the blessings of the head of the lineage, H.H. the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, and of Khenpo Rinpoche.

Ari is also a published translator and author of books, articles, and numerous songs of realization and texts on Buddhist philosophy and meditation. These include Khenpo Rinpoche’s books Stars of Wisdom, The Sun of Wisdom, and Rinpoche’s Song of the Eight Flashing Lances teaching, which appeared in The Best Buddhist Writing 2007. He is a contributing author of Freeing the Body, Freeing the Mind: Writings on the Connections Between Yoga and Buddhism.

Ari studied Buddhist texts in Tibetan and Sanskrit at Buddhist monasteries in Nepal and India, and at the Central Institute for Higher Tibetan Studies in India. In addition to translating for Khenpo Rinpoche, he has also served as translator for H.H. Karmapa, Tenga Rinpoche, and many other Tibetan teachers. From 2007–11, Ari served as president of the Marpa Foundation, a nonprofit organization initiated by Khenpo Rinpoche that supports Buddhist translation, nunneries in Bhutan and Nepal, and other Buddhist activities. Ari holds a BA from Harvard College and a JD from Harvard Law School, both with honors. (Source Accessed July 22, 2020)

Joseph Goldstein has been leading insight and lovingkindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where he is one of the organization’s guiding teachers. In 1989, together with several other teachers and students of insight meditation, he helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

Joseph first became interested in Buddhism as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand in 1965. Since 1967 he has studied and practiced different forms of Buddhist meditation under eminent teachers from India, Burma and Tibet. He is the author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, A Heart Full of Peace, One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism, Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom, The Experience of Insight, and co-author of Seeking the Heart of Wisdom and Insight Meditation: A Correspondence Course. (Source: Insight Meditation Society)

Charles Goodman is Professor in the Philosophy Department and the Department of Asian and Asian-American Studies at Binghamton University. His first book was Consequences of Compassion: An Interpretation and Defense of Buddhist Ethics (2009). As a member of the Cowherds collaboration, he is also a co-author of Moonpaths: Ethics and Emptiness (2016). Recently he published the first complete translation of the Śikṣā-samuccaya in over ninety years, entitled The Training Anthology of Śāntideva (2016).

Charles holds a BA in Physics from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on the works of Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophers, including Śāntideva, Bhāvaviveka, Nāgārjuna, Dharmakīrti, and Vasubandhu. His work emphasizes aspects of Buddhist thought that can offer valuable insights for the philosophy of today. Charles has also published several articles on applied ethics and political philosophy in the Western tradition. His writings on Buddhist philosophy have explored a range of topics, including ethical theory, conceptions of well-being, free will, and personal identity. (Source Accessed Mar 29, 2021)

David Gray received his B.A. in Religious Studies from Wesleyan University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in the History of Religion from Columbia University. His research explores the development of tantric Buddhist traditions in South Asia, and their dissemination in Tibet and East Asia, with a focus on the Yogin?tantras, a genre of Buddhist tantric literature that focused on female deities and yogic practices involving the subtle body. He focuses particularly on the Cakrasamvara Tantra, an esoteric Indian Buddhist scripture that serves as the basis for a number of important Nepali and Tibetan Buddhist practice traditions. (Source Accessed Dec 3, 2019)

Curriculum Vitae

Peter N. Gregory taught at Smith College from 1999 until 2014. After receiving his doctorate in East Asian languages and civilizations from Harvard University in 1981, he taught in the Program for the Study of Religion at the University of Illinois for 15 years. He has also served as the president and executive director of the Kuroda Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Human Values since 1984, and in that capacity he has directed two publication series with the University of Hawaii Press: "Studies in East Asian Buddhism" and "Classics in East Asian Buddhism."

Gregory's research has focused on medieval Chinese Buddhism, especially the Chan and Huayan traditions during the Tang and Song dynasties, on which he has written or edited seven books, including Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism (1991). He is currently completing a translation of a ninth-century Chinese Buddhist text on the historical and doctrinal origins of the Chan tradition.

After coming to Smith, Gregory's research and teaching became increasingly concerned with Buddhism in America, on which he produced a film, The Gate of Sweet Nectar: Feeding Hungry Spirits in an American Zen Community (2004), and co-edited a book, Women Practicing Buddhism: American Experiences (Wisdom Publications, 2007). (Source Accessed June 13, 2019)