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Yangsi Rinpoche + (Yangsi Rinpoche (President) was recognized … Yangsi Rinpoche (President) was recognized as the reincarnation of Geshe Ngawang Gendun, a renowned scholar and practitioner from Western Tibet, at the age of six. Rinpoche trained in the traditional monastic system for over 25 years, and practiced as a monk until the age of 35.In 1995 he graduated with the highest degree of Geshe Lharampa from Sera Je Monastery in South India. He then completed his studies at Gyume Tantric College, and, in 1998, having the particular wish to benefit Western students of the Buddhadharma, Rinpoche came to the West to teach and travel extensively throughout America and Europe.Rinpoche served as a resident teacher at Deer Park Buddhist Center in Madison, Wisconsin for five years, and is currently the Spiritual Director of Ganden Shedrup Ling Buddhist Center in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Spiritual Director of Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle, Washington.He founded Maitripa College in 2005 in Portland, Oregon. Rinpoche is the author of Practicing the Path: A Commentary on the Lamrim Chenmo, published in 2003 by Wisdom Publications.Rinpoche teaches in English, and is admired wherever he travels for his unique presentation of the Dharma, his interest in and enthusiasm for Western culture, and his evident embodiment of the wisdom and compassion of the Buddhist path. When not in the classroom at Maitripa College, during academic year breaks and for special events, Yangsi Rinpoche travels widely, representing Maitripa College at conferences and giving teachings around the world. [https://maitripa.org/yangsi-rinpoche/ Source]ps://maitripa.org/yangsi-rinpoche/ Source])
Yoke Meei Choong + (Yoke Meei Choong 宗玉媺 currently teaches as … Yoke Meei Choong 宗玉媺 currently teaches as an Associate Professor in the Department of Buddhist Studies at Fo Guang University, Taiwan. Her research combines Buddhist philological study with the historical study of Buddhist thought. Her interest lies mainly in the derivation, adaptation and development of Mahāyāna concepts or thought from the ideas of mainstream Buddhism. Her chief publications include "''Nirvāṇa'' and ''Tathatā'' in Yogācāra Texts: The Bodhisattva’s Adaptation of the ''Śrāvaka''-Path", "To Realize or Not to Realize the Supreme Truth: A Change of the Conception of Realization”, “On the Interpretation of ''na śūnyatayā śūnya''", and a book, ''Zum Problem der Leerheit'' (śūnyatā) ''in der Prajñāpāramitā''. (Source: ''A Distant Mirror'', about the authors, 529) Distant Mirror'', about the authors, 529))
Yongdzin Ayang Thubten + (Yongdzin Ayang Thubten Rinpoche (1899-1966) was one of the tutors to the present Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche (7th). He is the author of ''Rays of Sunlight'', a commentary on Zhedang Dorje’s ''The Heart of the Mahayana Teachings''.)
Yoshiro Tamura + (Yoshiro Tamura (1921-1989) was a well-rega … Yoshiro Tamura (1921-1989) was a well-regarded scholar of Japanese Buddhism, known particularly for his study of the Lotus Sūtra and the traditions that developed around it and the person of Nichiren in Japan. ([https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/yoshiro-tamura/ Source Accessed October 17, 2019])tamura/ Source Accessed October 17, 2019]))
Yoshito S. Hakeda + (Yoshito S. Hakeda was an Associate Profess … Yoshito S. Hakeda was an Associate Professor of Japanese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at Columbia University. He is the translator of ''The Awakening of Faith'', attributed to Aśvaghosha (1967), and one of the collaborators assisting Wm. Theodore de Bary in preparing ''Buddhist Tradition in India, China, and Japan'' (1969).According to his obituary in the New York Times, "Professor Hakeda's major volume was a translation and study of the works and thought of Kukai, a ninth-century Japanese Buddhist priest and scholar, published by the Columbia University Press in 1972. He also collaborated on ''Bankei Zen,'' a translation of the works of a 17th-century Zen master." ([https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/01/obituaries/yoshitoshakeda-professor-ofjapaneseatcolumbiadies.html Source Accessed December 4, 2019)]es.html Source Accessed December 4, 2019)])
Young-ho Kim + (Young-ho Kim was an Assistant Professor of … Young-ho Kim was an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Inha University in Korea. He is the author of ''Tao-Sheng's Commentary on the Lotus Sūtra: A Study and Translation'' (SUNY Press, 1990). This work was originally presented as a doctoral thesis at McMaster University in Ontario in 1985, under the supervision of [[Yün-hua Jan]].[Yün-hua Jan]].)
Zaya Pandita + (Zaya Pandita or Namkhaijamts (1599–1662) w … Zaya Pandita or Namkhaijamts (1599–1662) was a Buddhist missionary priest and scholar of Oirat origin who is the most prominent Oirat Buddhist scholar. Among his accomplishments is the invention of the Clear Script.Zaya Pandita was the fifth son of Babakhan, a minor Khoshut prince. After Babakhan converted to Tibetan Buddhism in the early 17th century, he, like many other Oirat princes, wished for one of his sons to enter the Buddhist clergy. In pursuit of his wish, Babakhan chose Zaya to become a śrāmaṇera ("novice monk"). In 1615, Zaya journeyed to Lhasa where he would study and practice Buddhism, including study under the guidance of the Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen, 4th Panchen Lama.In 1638, Zaya Pandita left Tibet at the direction of the Panchen Lama to conduct missionary work among the Mongols. One year later in 1640, he assisted Erdeni Batur, Khun Taiyishi of the Choros (Oirats) tribe, in assembling a pan-Mongol conference between the Oirat and the Khalkha Mongols. The purpose of the conference was to encourage the formation of a united Mongolian front against potential external enemies, such as the Kazakhs, Manchus, and Russians and to settle all internal matters peacefully. The conference produced a code, which provided protection from foreign aggression to both the Oirat and the Khalkha and guaranteed the free movement of people throughout Mongol land.When not engaged in diplomacy between the Oirat and the Khalkha, Zaya Pandita spread Tibetan Buddhism to the Oirats, the Khalkha and even the Kalmyk people in far away Russia. In furtherance of his missionary work, Zaya Pandita composed a new alphabet, based on the traditional Mongolian alphabet, called "Clear script" (''todo bichig'') to transcribe the Oirat language as it is pronounced. By doing so, Zaya Pandita eliminated the ambiguities of the traditional Mongolian alphabet.From the time Zaya Pandita developed the Clear Script in 1648 until his death in 1662, he translated approximately 186 Buddhist texts from Tibetan language to the Oirat language while still serving the religious needs of the Oirat tribes in Dzungaria.The todo bichig script is still used by Oirats in Xinjiang with slight revisions, and is taught alongside standard classical written Mongolian in that region. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaya_Pandita Source Accessed Oct 6, 2023])According to Fredrick Liland, "The Oirat scholar Zaya Pandita (1599-1662) according to his biography made a new translation of the BCA. Zaya Pandita was influential in spreading the Buddhist faith also among the Kalmyks, a Mongolian people who migrated to the shore of the Caspian Sea in the 17th Century. He is said to have translated a large number of texts into the Oirat/Kalmyk language, so it is quite likely that the BCA was among these. The translation of Zaya Pandita has however not been found. (Source: Liland, Fredrik. "Later Editions and Translations." In "The Transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra: The History, Diffusion, and Influence of a Mahāyāna Buddhist Text," 49–58. MA thesis, University of Oslo, 2009.)–58. MA thesis, University of Oslo, 2009.))
Zhi Qian + (Zhi Qian. (J. Shi Ken; K. Chi Kyǒm 支謙) (fl … Zhi Qian. (J. Shi Ken; K. Chi Kyǒm 支謙) (fl. c. 220–252). Prolific earlier translator of Buddhist texts into Chinese. A descendant of an Indo-Scythian émigré from the Kushan. kingdom in the Kashmir-GandhAra region of northwest India, Zhi Qian is said to have been fluent in six languages. Although never ordained as a monk, Zhi Qian studied under the guidance of Zhi Liang (d.u.), a disciple of the renowned Indo-Scythian translator Lokakṣema (fl. c. 178–198 CE). Zhi Qian fled northern China in the political chaos that accompanied the collapse of the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), eventually migrating to the Wu Kingdom in the south. There, he settled first in Wuchang and later in the Wu Capital of Jianye, which was where the majority of his translations appear to have been made. Zhi Qian was known to have been artistically talented, and many of his translations were noted for their fluent style that did not strive to adhere to the exact meaning of each word and phrase, but instead sought to convey the insights of the text in an accessible fashion for a Chinese audience. The fifty-three translations that are attributed to Zhi Qian range widely between Āgama and didactic materials and early Mahāyāna scriptural literature, but also include many spurious later attributions. . . . Among the translations that may with confidence be ascribed to Zhi Qian are early renderings of the ''Vimalakīrtinirdeśa'', the ''Pusa Benye Jing'', the ''Sukhāvatīvyūhasūtra'', the ''Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā'', and a primitive recension of the ''Avataṃsakasūtra''. Zhi Qian is also presumed to be one of the first Buddhist commentators in the East Asian tradition: Dao'an (314–385) States in his scriptural catalogue Zongli zhongjing mulu (now embedded in the Chu sanzang jiji) that Zhi Qian wrote a commentary to the ''Śālistambasūtra'' (C. ''Liaoben shengsi jing'') while preparing its translation. Late in his life, Zhi Qian retired to Mt. Qionglong, where he is said to have passed away at the age of sixty. (Source: "Zhi Qian." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 1056. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)tp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.))
Zhaozhou Congshen + (Zhàozhōu Cōngshěn (Chinese: 趙州從諗; Wade-Gil … Zhàozhōu Cōngshěn (Chinese: 趙州從諗; Wade-Giles: Chao-chou Ts'ung-shen; Japanese: Jōshū Jūshin) (778–897) was a Chán (Zen) Buddhist master especially known for his "paradoxical statements and strange deeds".Zhaozhou became ordained as a monk at an early age. At the age of 18, he met Nánquán Pǔyuàn (南泉普願 748–835; J: Nansen Fugan), a successor of Mǎzǔ Dàoyī (709–788; J. Baso Do-itsu), and eventually received the Dharma from him. When Nanquan asked Zhaozhou the koan "What is the Way?", the two had a dialogue, at the height of which Zhaozhou attained enlightenment. Zhaozhou continued to practice under Nanquan until the latter's death.Subsequently, Zhaozhou began to travel throughout China, visiting the prominent Chan masters of the time before finally, at the age of eighty, settling in Guānyīnyuàn (觀音院), a ruined temple in northern China. There, for the next 40 years, he taught a small group of monks.Zhaozhou is sometimes touted as the greatest Chan master of Tang dynasty China during a time when its hegemony was disintegrating as more and more regional military governors (jiédùshǐ) began to assert their power. Zhaozhou's lineage died out quickly due to the many wars and frequent purges of Buddhism in China at the time, and cannot be documented beyond the year 1000.Many koans in both the ''Blue Cliff Record'' and ''The Gateless Gate'' concern Zhaozhou, with twelve cases in the former and five in the latter being attributed to him. He is, however, probably best known for the first koan in ''The Gateless Gate'':A monk asked Chao-chou, "Has the dog Buddha-nature or not?" Chao-chou said, "Wu."([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhaozhou_Congshen Source Accessed July, 15, 2021])_Congshen Source Accessed July, 15, 2021]))
C.W. "Sandy" Huntington + ([C. W. "Sandy"] Huntington was known forem … [C. W. "Sandy"] Huntington was known foremost for his work in Mahayana Buddhist thought, in particular the Madhyamaka philosophy of India and Tibet. More recently, he published a novel, Maya (Wisdom Publications 2015), set in India in the 1970s, and wrote an article, “The Triumph of Narcissism: Theravāda Buddhist Meditation in the Marketplace,” critiquing certain psychotherapeutic models of teaching and understanding vipassanā meditation found in the West today.* Until his death, Huntington served as a professor of religious studies at Hartwick College, in Oneonta, New York, where he won both the Margaret L. Bunn Award for Excellence in Teaching (2004) and the Teacher/Scholar Award (2019). Before teaching at Hartwick, Huntington worked at the University of Michigan, his alma mater, as well as Denison College and Antioch University’s Buddhist Studies in India program, based in Bodh Gaya.As a doctoral student, Huntington was guided at the University of Michigan by Luis Gómez, himself a beloved and prolific scholar of Indian Buddhist thought. During this time, Huntington traveled to India to study Sanskrit and Tibetan with the great masters of the day, returning many times over his career. On one such visit, he translated Candrakīrti’s Madhyamakāvatāra with Geshé Namgyal Wangchen, later published as The Emptiness of Emptiness (Hawaii University Press 1989), a pioneering text in Buddhist philosophy. Huntington went on to work closely with fellow scholars on topics of hermeneutics and methodology in the study of Buddhist philosophy, asking scholars to look not only at what the texts mean, but what presuppositions and attitudes were influencing their own interpretations and understandings. ([https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/buddhist-scholar-cw-sandy-huntington-dies-aged-71 Source Accessed May 26, 2021])ies-aged-71 Source Accessed May 26, 2021]))
Tsechokling Yeshe Gyaltsen + ([https://bo.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%BD%A1%E … [https://bo.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%BD%A1%E0%BD%BC%E0%BD%84%E0%BD%A6%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%A0%E0%BD%9B%E0%BD%B2%E0%BD%93%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%A1%E0%BD%BA%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%A4%E0%BD%BA%E0%BD%A6%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%A2%E0%BE%92%E0%BE%B1%E0%BD%A3%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%98%E0%BD%9A%E0%BD%93%E0%BC%8B You can read a short Tibetan biography on the Bo Wiki here]. First Tsechokling Yongdzin Tulku, Yeshe Gyeltsen (yongs 'dzin ye shes rgyal mtshan, 1713-1793) was an important scholar of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism and was a tutor of the 8th Dalai Lama Jampel Gyatsho (1758-1804).He received his education in the monastery Trashilhünpo. In 1756 he founded the monastery Trashi Samtenling (bkra shis bsam gtan gling).One of his most famous works is The Necklace of Clear Understanding, An Elucidation of Mind and Mental Factors (Tib. སེམས་དང་སེམས་བྱུང་གི་ཚུལ་གསལ་པར་སྟོན་པ་བློ་གསལ་མགུལ་རྒྱན་, Wyl. sems dang sems-byung gi tshul gsal-par ston-pa blo gsal mgul rgyan). A commentary on the Abhidharma topic of the mind and mental factors. This Tibetan text has been translated into English by Herbert Guenther & Leslie S. Kawamura, in a text entitled Mind in Buddhist Psychology. ([https://encyclopediaofbuddhism.org/wiki/Yongdzin_Yeshe_Gyeltsen Source: Encyclopedia of Buddhism])Six printings of his collected works (each in 19 or 25 volumes, depending on the printing, and [[Yongs 'dzin ye shes rgyal mtshan gyi gsung 'bum|32 volumes in modern book print]]) are cataloged on [https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:WA1022 BDRC.org].ary.bdrc.io/show/bdr:WA1022 BDRC.org].)
Gene Smith + ([https://www.tbrc.org/#!footer/about/genes … [https://www.tbrc.org/#!footer/about/genesmith Founder of TBRC, now BDRC]*[https://84000.co/obituary-of-e-gene-smith/ Obituary on 84000]*[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/01/AR2011010102390.html Obituary in Washington Post]*[http://digitaldharma.com/home Documentary film about his life and work: Digital Dharma]''[https://www.tbrc.org/#!footer/about/genesmith Biography from BDRC]:'' E. Gene Smith (BDRC Founder and Senior Research Scholar) was born in Ogden, Utah in 1936. He studied at a variety of institutions of higher education in the United States: Adelphi College, Hobart College, University of Utah, and the University of Washington in Seattle.In 1959, the Rockefeller Foundation, seeing the opportunity to promote Tibetan studies, funded the establishment of nine centers of excellence worldwide, one of which was at the University of Washington.Under the auspices of the Rockefeller grant to the Far Eastern and Russian Institute, nine Tibetans were brought to Seattle for teaching and research, including the Ven. Deshung Rinpoche Kunga Tenpai Nyima, the tutor to the Sakya Phuntsho Phodrang. Smith had the good fortune to study Tibetan culture as well as Buddhism with Deshung Rinpoche and the rest of the Tibetan teachers in Seattle from 1960 to 1964. He lived with the Sakya family for five years. He spent the summer of 1962 travelling to the other Rockefeller centers in Europe to meet with the Tibetan savants there.In 1964 he completed his Ph.D. qualifying exams and travelled to Leiden for advanced studies in Sanskrit and Pali. In 1965 he went to India under a Foreign Area Fellowship Program (Ford Foundation) grant to study with living exponents of all of the Tibetan Buddhist and Bonpo traditions.He began his studies with Geshe Lobsang Lungtok (Ganden Changtse), Drukpa Thoosay Rinpoche and Khenpo Noryang, and H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. He decided to remain in India to continue serious study of Tibetan Buddhism and culture. He travelled extensively in the borderlands of India and Nepal. In 1968 he joined the Library of Congress New Delhi Field Office. He then began a project which was to last over the next two and a half decades: the reprinting of the Tibetan books which had been brought by the exile community or were with members of the Tibetan-speaking communities in Sikkim, Bhutan, India, and Nepal.He became field director of the Library of Congress Field Office in India in 1980 and served there until 1985 when he was transferred to Indonesia. He stayed in Jakarta running the Southeast Asian programs until 1994 when he was assigned to the LC Middle Eastern Office in Cairo.In February 1997 he took early retirement from the U.S. Library of Congress to become a consultant to the Trace Foundation for the establishment of the Himalayan and Inner Asian Resources (HIAR) library.In December 1999 he and a group of friends established the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center in Cambridge.He passed away on December 16, 2010. (Source Accessed on June 30, 2020), 2010. (Source Accessed on June 30, 2020))
Khenchen Dazer + (he was from Rahor, a branch of Dzogchen mo … he was from Rahor, a branch of Dzogchen monastery founded by the Third Dzogchen Rinpoche in Gyalrong near Dergé. He was a student of Pöpa Tulku. He escaped from Tibet together with his former classmate Rahor Khenpo Tupten and went together with him to Sikkim via Bhutan.He taught at Namdroling in South India, where he also compiled a collection of prayers and liturgies used in Nyingma rituals, and eventually returned to Tibet, where he taught at the Shri Singha Shedra at Dzogchen Monastery. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Khenpo_Daw%C3%A9_%C3%96zer Source Accessed on January 24, 2024])'''Read more: ''':Marilyn Silverstone, 'Five Nyingmapa Lamas in Sikkim', Kailash: A Journal of Himalayan Studies, 1973, vol. 1.1:Nyoshul Khenpo, A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems, Padma Publishing, 2005, p. 480'''Writings:'''*དོན་རྣམ་འགྲེལ་པ་ལུང་རིགས་དོ་ཤལ་, don rnam 'grel pa lung rigs do shal (Necklace of Scripture and Reasoning: A Commentary on Mipham Rinpoche's Sword of Wisdom for Thoroughly Ascertaining Reality, ཤེས་རབ་རལ་གྲི་དོན་རྣམ་ངེས) (composed in 1982): https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:MW1KG4451*ཆོས་སྤྱོད་བསྡུས་པ་ཕན་བདེའི་དགའ་སྟོན་, chos spyod bsdus pa phan bde'i dga' ston (editor)yod bsdus pa phan bde'i dga' ston (editor))
Sarat Chandra Sastri + (Çarat Chandra Çastri (or Sarat Chandra Sas … Çarat Chandra Çastri (or Sarat Chandra Sastri) was a notable Indian scholar who made significant contributions to Buddhist studies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He collaborated with Çarat Chandra Das on several important works related to Buddhism.He coauthored ''Suvarña Prabhá'' with Çarat Chandra Das, published in Calcutta in 1898.He also worked on ''Buddhist Texts of the Northern and Southern Schools'' in 1897.Çastri's work primarily centered on Buddhist texts and literature, with a particular emphasis on comparing Northern and Southern Buddhist traditions.Çastri's scholarly activities took place during a period of renewed interest in Buddhist studies in India. This era saw increased archaeological research and textual analysis of Buddhist materials, contributing to a deeper understanding of Buddhism's history and development in the region.m's history and development in the region.)
Eduard Huber + (Édouard Huber, actually Eduard Huber (born … Édouard Huber, actually Eduard Huber (born August 12, 1879 in Grosswangen, Switzerland; † January 6, 1914 in Vĩnh Long, Vietnam), was a Swiss language scholar, archaeologist, sinologist and Indochina researcher. He was a professor of Indochinese philology and temporarily taught at the Sorbonne in Paris. ([https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edouard_Huber Source Accessed Apr 28, 2021])ouard_Huber Source Accessed Apr 28, 2021]))
Édouard Chavannes + (Émmanuel-Édouard Chavannes (5 October 1865 … Émmanuel-Édouard Chavannes (5 October 1865 – 29 January 1918) was a French sinologist and expert on Chinese history and religion, and is best known for his translations of major segments of Sima Qian's ''Records of the Grand Historian'', the work's first ever translation into a Western language.Chavannes was a prolific and influential scholar, and was one of the most accomplished Sinologists of the modern era notwithstanding his relatively early death at age 52 in 1918. A successor of 19th century French sinologists Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat and Stanislas Julien, Chavannes was largely responsible for the development of Sinology and Chinese scholarship into a respected field in the realm of French science. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89douard_Chavannes Source Accessed Apr 21, 2022])d_Chavannes Source Accessed Apr 21, 2022]))
Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu + (Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu (born Osbert John S. Moor … Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu (born Osbert John S. Moore; 25 June 1905 – 8 March 1960) was a British Theravada Buddhist monk and translator of Pali literature.Born in Cambridge, Osbert was the only child of biologist John Edmund Sharrock Moore and Heloise Moore (née Salvin). He was named after Heloise's father, the naturalist Osbert Salvin. He studied modern languages at Exeter College, Oxford. He helped a friend to run an antiques shop before joining the army at the outbreak of World War II, joining the anti-aircraft regiment before being transferred to the Intelligence Corps officer-cadet training camp. He was posted to a camp on the Isle of Man to help oversee Italian internees.In 1944 he was posted to Italy serving as an intelligence officer interrogating spies and saboteurs. During this period he discovered Buddhism via Julius Evola's ''The Doctrine of Awakening'', a Nietzschean interpretation of Buddhism. This work had been translated by his friend Harold Edward Musson, also an intelligence officer serving in Italy.After the war Moore joined the Italian section of the BBC. Moore and Musson, who shared a flat in London, were quite disillusioned with their lives and left to Sri Lanka in 1949 to become Buddhist monks. On 24 April 1949 they received the novice (samanera) ordination or going forth, ''pabbajjā'', from Ñāṇatiloka at the Island Hermitage. In 1950 they received their bhikkhu ordination at Vajirarama Temple Colombo. Ñāṇamoli spent almost his entire monk life of eleven years at the Island Hermitage.After having been taught the basics of Pali by Nyanatiloka Mahathera, Ñāṇamoli acquired a remarkable command of the Pali language and a wide knowledge of the canonical scriptures within a comparatively short time. He is remembered for his reliable translations from the Pali into English, mostly of abstruse texts such as the Nettippakaraṇa which are considered difficult to translate. He also wrote essays on aspects of Buddhism. By 1956 he had translated ''Visuddhimagga'' into English and got it published as ''The Path of Purification''. He also compiled ''The Life of the Buddha'', a reliable and popular biography of the Buddha based on authentic records in the Pali Canon. His notes with his philosophical thoughts were compiled by Nyanaponika Thera and published as ''A Thinker's Note Book''.His handwritten draft translation of the Majjhima Nikaya was typed out after his death and edited by Bhikkhu Khantipalo, and partly published as ''A Treasury of the Buddha's Discourses'' and then edited again by Bhikkhu Bodhi and published as ''Middle Length Discourse of the Buddha'' and published by Wisdom Publications in 1995. Other draft translations, edited and published after his death, are ''The Path of Discrimination'' (''Paṭisambhidāmagga'') and ''Dispeller of Delusion'' (''Sammohavinodanī''). ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%91%C4%81%E1%B9%87amoli_Bhikkhu Source Accessed May 18, 2021])oli_Bhikkhu Source Accessed May 18, 2021]))
Ācārya Gyaltsen Namdol + (Ācārya Gyaltsen Namdol is a Tibetan schola … Ācārya Gyaltsen Namdol is a Tibetan scholar and translator who has made significant contributions to the field of Buddhist studies. He has worked extensively on translating and critically editing important Buddhist texts from Sanskrit and Tibetan. Some of his notable works include:*Translating and critically editing the Dharmasaṃgraḥ by Ācārya Nāgārjuna in 1988.*Restoring, translating, and critically editing Bhāvanākrama I, II, III by Ācārya Kamalaśīla in 1985 and 1997.*Translating and critically editing various works by Ācārya Nāgārjuna, including Pratītyasamutpādahṛdaya, Āryadharmadhātugarbhavivaraṇa, and Catuḥstavaḥ.*Critically editing Piṇḍīkrama & Pañcakrama of Ācārya Nāgārjuna.*Translating Tsongkhapa's Mahāvipaśyanā into Hindi in 2012.Gyaltsen Namdol has been associated with the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies (now Central University of Tibetan Studies) in India, where he worked in the Restoration Department. His work has been recognized with awards from the U.P. Sanskrit Sansthan (Academy). (Generated by Perplexity Jan 10, 2025)ademy). (Generated by Perplexity Jan 10, 2025))
Āryadeva + (Āryadeva (3rd century), a disciple of Nāgā … Āryadeva (3rd century), a disciple of Nāgārjuna, is a central figure in the development of early Indian Madhyamaka philosophy. Āryadeva’s Hundred Verses Treatise (Bai lun) was one of the three basic texts of the Chinese Madhyamaka school founded by the central Asian monk Kumārajīva (b. 344–d. 413), which accordingly was called the Sanlun (Jpn. Sanron), or “three-treatise” school. According to the biography that Kumārajīva translated into Chinese, Āryadeva was born into a South Indian Brahmin family, became Nāgārjuna’s disciple, was renowned for his skill in debate, and was murdered by a student of a defeated teacher. Candrakīrti (b. c. 570–d. 650), in his commentary on Āryadeva’s major work, the Four Hundred Verses (Catuḥśataka), reports that Āryadeva was born on the island of Sinhala (Sri Lanka) as a king’s son, renounced his royal status, became a monk, and traveled to South India, where he studied with Nāgārjuna. Some scholars suggest that Āryadeva is the elder deva mentioned in the Mahāvaṃsa and Dīpavaṃsa chronicles of early Sri Lankan religious history. Āryadeva did not write commentaries on Nāgārjuna’s works but, rather, wrote autonomous treatises that defended Madhyamaka beliefs against its Buddhist and non-Buddhist critics. He devotes the first eight chapters to explaining ethical behavior and such practices as generosity, which form the basis for the bodhisattva’s accumulation of merit (puṇya). The latter eight chapters refute wrong views about the independent existence of external phenomena and the self, defending the Madhyamaka philosophy of emptiness and the dependently arisen nature of all things. The Catuḥśataka presents the path to the attainment of buddhahood as structured around these two requisites of merit and knowledge (jñāna). As an introduction to the practices of a bodhisattva, the Catuḥśataka prepares the ground for Śāntideva’s later (c. 8th-century) and more extensive treatment in Introduction to the Practices of a Bodhisattva (Bodhicaryāvatāra). Apart from some fragments of the Catuḥśataka, none of the works the Chinese and Tibetan canons attributed to Āryadeva survive in Sanskrit. [https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195393521/obo-9780195393521-0065.xml From Oxford Bibliogrpahies ][https://www.academia.edu/39006061/%C4%80ryadeva_full_version_ See Tillemans article on Āryadeva] appearing in the forthcoming 2022 Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy (McClintock, Edelglass, and Pierre-Julien Harter).ock, Edelglass, and Pierre-Julien Harter).)
Śikṣānanda + (Śikṣānanda. (C. Shichanantuo; J. Jisshanan … Śikṣānanda. (C. Shichanantuo; J. Jisshananda; K. Silch'anant'a 實叉難陀) (652-710). A monk from Khotan (C. Yutian), who was an important translator of Buddhist texts into Chinese during the Tang dynasty. The Empress Wu Zetian (r. 690-705) invited Śikṣānanda to the Chinese Capital of Luoyang, asking him to bring from Khotan its Sanskrit recension of the ''Avataṃsakasūtra'' (alt. ''Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra''; C. ''Dafangguang Fo huayan jing''), which was longer and more comprehensive than the sixty-roll version then in use in China, which had previously been translated by the Indian monk Buddhabhadra (359-429). Śikṣānanda arrived in Luoyang in 695 and supervised a translation team in rendering this Khotanese recension into Chinese; his team included Bodhiruci (693-727), Yijing (635-713), and Wǒnch'ǔk (613-696). Śikṣānanda and his team finished their translation in 699, after four years of work, in a total of eighty rolls. The translation that Śikṣānanda supervised is typically called within the tradition the "new" (xin) translation, in contrast to Buddhabhadra's "old" translation. (Li Tongxuan's commentary to Śikṣānanda's new rendering of the text is, for example, called the ''Xin Huayan jing lun''; see ''Huayan jing helun''.) Śikṣānanda continued with his translation projects until 705, when he returned to Khotan to care for his aged mother. Some thirteen other translations are attributed to him, including the ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra'' and several shorter dhāraṇī sūtras, as well as a version of the ''Dasheng qixin lun'' ("Awakening of Faith According to the Mahāyāna"). Emperor Zhongzong (r. 705-710) invited Śikṣānanda to return once again to China in 708, but he died of illness in 710 at the age of fifty-nine without beginning any new translation work. It is reported that after his cremation, his tongue remained untouched by flames—an indication of his remarkable erudition. (Source: "Śikṣānanda." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 820. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)tp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.))
Śrīdhara Rāṇā + (Śrīdhara Rāṇā, also known as Ācārya Dharma … Śrīdhara Rāṇā, also known as Ācārya Dharmavajra, was a Nepali scholar who contributed to the study of Buddhist texts. He wrote an introduction to a Nepali translation of the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra''. The translation included grammatical analysis and explanations based on Prajñākaramati's commentary. This work helped make the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' more accessible to Nepali readers and contributed to the preservation and understanding of Buddhist philosophy in Nepal.rstanding of Buddhist philosophy in Nepal.)
Śrīsiṃhaprabha + (Śrīsiṃhaprabha, or "Revered Lion" (Skt. Śrī Siṃha), was an eighth-century Buddhist scholar and translator. He collaborated with the master translator Vairocana and is primarily known for his contributions to the Tibetan Buddhist canon.)
Śākyamitra + (Śākyamitra (or ShAkya bshes gnyen) was an Indian paṇḍita who flourished between 750 and 850 CE. He is the author of several works in the Tengyur, including the ''Bhadracaryāpraṇidhānarājaṭīkā'', a commentary on the ''Bhadracaryāpraṇidhānarāja''.)
Śākyasiṁha + (Śākyasiṁha was an Indian paṇdita primarily … Śākyasiṁha was an Indian paṇdita primarily known for the Tibetan translation of the ''Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā'' that he completed with Kawa Paltsek (ska ba dpal brtsegs). According to the introduction to ''The Universal Vehicle Discourse Literature (Mahāyānasūtrālaṁkāra)'' (American Institute of Buddhist Studies, Columbia University's Center for Buddhist Studies, and Tibet House US, 2004), both the verses in the ''Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārakārikā'' (Peking 5521) and the work which contains the verses and commentary together under the title ''Sūtrālaṁkāra-bhāṣya'' (Peking 5527) were prepared by Śākyasiṁha and Kawa Paltsek during the royal translation project at Samye monastery in the 8th-9th century. (xxxiv) monastery in the 8th-9th century. (xxxiv))
Śāntibhikṣu Śāstrī + (Śāntibhikṣu Śāstrī was a Sanskrit scholar … Śāntibhikṣu Śāstrī was a Sanskrit scholar and author born in 1912. He wrote several works on Buddhism and Sanskrit literature, including a book titled ''Mahāyāna'' published by Viśvabhāratī Granthālaya in 1958, a translation of Śāntideva's ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' into Hindi, published by Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan in 2010, and a work called ''Buddhodayakāvyam''.0, and a work called ''Buddhodayakāvyam''.)

Je Yeshe Gyatso + (A Gelukpa scholar from Chentsa Mani temple in Qinghai. He wrote a commentary on the ''Ultimate Continuum'' following Gyaltsap Je's interpretation.)

The Fourth Drukchen Pema Karpo + ("After the death of 'Jam dbyangs chos kyi … "After the death of 'Jam dbyangs chos kyi grags pa (the 3rd Drukchen or Gyalwang Drukpa), monks found the rebirth in the house of a minor aristocrat of Kongpo, to the disappointment of both the families of Rwa lung and Bya. This child, the sprul sku Ngag dbang nor bu, was to be the great Padma dkar po. Padma dkar po was one of those rare renaissance men. The breadth of his scholarship and learning invites comparison with the Fifth Dalai Lama. It was Padma dkar po who systematized the teaching of the 'Brug pa sect. It is no wonder that the 'Brug pa Bka' brgyud pa always refer to him as Kun mkhyen, the Omniscient, an epithet reserved for the greatest scholar of a sect. Padma dkar po was a shrewd and occasionally ruthless politician. His autobiography is one of the most important sources for the history of the sixteenth century. Padma dkar po was a monk and insisted on adherence to the vinaya rules for his monastic followers. He also held that in the administration of church affairs the claims of the rebirth and the monastic scholar took priority over those of the scion of a revered lineage. Although he preached often at both Rwa lung and Bkra shis mthong smon, the seats of his two immediate predecessors, he never exercised actual control over these monasteries and their estates. He founded his monastery at Gsang sngags chos gling in Byar po, north of Mon Rta dbang, which became the seat of the subsequent Rgyal dbang 'Brug pa incarnation." (Gene Smith, ''Among Tibetan Texts'', 81) (Gene Smith, ''Among Tibetan Texts'', 81))
Richard D. McBride, II + ('''Biography:''' Richard was raised in Los … '''Biography:'''Richard was raised in Los Angeles, California, and served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Korea Pusan Mission from 1988 to 1990. He double majored in Asian Studies and Korean at BYU, graduating in 1993, and later earned a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures (with emphasis on Korean and Chinese Buddhism and early Korean History) at UCLA in 2001. He was a Fulbright Senior Researcher at Dongguk University in Korea from 2007 to 2008, He taught in the History Department at BYU-Hawaii from 2008 to 2018. His wife of 17 years, Younghee Yeon McBride, passed away from pancreatic cancer in February 2018. They are the parents of two sons, David and Sean. Prof. McBride began teaching at BYU in the fall 2018 semester.'''Research Interests:'''Prof. McBride has broad research interests. He is interested in and has published broadly on Korean Buddhist literature, particularly Buddhist spells and incantations (dharani and mantra). He is also interested Buddhist narrative literature, such as is found in the Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, ca. 1285); traditional historiography, such as the Samguk sagi (compiled in 1146); as well as strange tales and ghost stories, which have long been popular genres for East Asians. Prof. McBride is also a scholar of the history and society of the early Korean state of Silla (ca. 300-935), particularly the hwarang (flower boys) organization. ([https://hum.byu.edu/directory/richard-mcbride-ii Source Accessed Aug 2, 2023])d-mcbride-ii Source Accessed Aug 2, 2023]))
Hubert Decleer + ('''In Memoriam: Hubert Decleer (1940–2021) … '''In Memoriam: Hubert Decleer (1940–2021)''':by Andrew QuintmanWith great sadness, we share news that our incomparable teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend Hubert Decleer passed away peacefully on Wednesday, August 25. He was at his home with his wife, the poet Nazneen Zafar, in Kathmandu, Nepal, near the Swayambhū Mahācaitya that had been his constant inspiration for nearly five decades. His health declined rapidly following a diagnosis of advanced-stage lung cancer in May, but he remained lucid and in high spirits and over the past weeks he was surrounded by family members and close friends. Through his final hours, he maintained his love of Himalayan scholarship and black coffee, and his deep and quiet commitment to Buddhist practice.Hubert’s contributions to the study of Tibetan and Himalayan traditions are expansive, covering the religious, literary, and cultural histories of Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and India. For nearly thirty-five years he directed and advised the School for International Training’s program for Tibetan Studies, an undergraduate study-abroad program that has served as a starting point for scholars currently working in fields as diverse as Anthropology, Art History, Education, Conservation, History, Religious Studies, Philosophy, and Public Policy. The countless scholars he inspired are connected by the undercurrent of Hubert's indelible "light touch" and all the subtle and formative lessons he imparted as a mentor and friend.Hubert embodied a seemingly inexhaustible curiosity that spanned kaleidoscopic interests ranging from Chinese landscapes to Netherlandish still lifes, medieval Tibetan pilgrimage literature to French cinema, 1940s bebop to classical Hindustani vocal performance. With legendary hospitality, his home, informally dubbed “The Institute,” was an oasis for scholars, former students, artists, and musicians, who came to share a simple dinner of daal bhaat or a coffee on the terrace overlooking Swayambhū. The conversations that took place on that terrace often unearthed a text or image or reference that turned out to be the missing link in the visitor's current research project. When not discussing scholarship, Hubert inspired his friends to appreciate the intelligence and charm of animals—monkeys and crows especially—or to enjoy the marvels of a blossoming potted plum tree. His attentiveness to the world around him generated intense sensitivity and compassion. He was an accomplished painter and a captivating storyteller, ever ready with accounts of the artists’ scene in Europe or his numerous overland journeys to Asia. The stories from long ago flowed freely and very often revealed some important insight about the present moment, however discrete. Hubert François Kamiel Decleer was born on August 22, 1940, in Ostend, Belgium. In 1946, he spent three months in Switzerland with a group of sixty children whose parents served in the Résistance. He completed his Latin-Greek Humaniora at the Royal Atheneum in Ostend in 1958, when he was awarded the Jacques Kets National Prize for biology by the Royal Zoo Society of Antwerp. He developed a keen interest in the arts, and during this period he also held his first exhibition of oil paintings and gouaches. In 1959 he finished his B.A. in History and Dutch Literature at the Regent School in Ghent. Between 1960 and 1963 he taught Dutch and History at the Hotel and Technical School in Ostend, punctuated by a period of military service near Köln, Germany in 1961–62. The highlight of his military career was the founding of a musical group (for which he played drums) that entertained officers’ balls with covers of Ray Charles and other hits of the day. In 1963 Hubert made the first of his many trips to Asia, hitchhiking for thirteen months from Europe to India and through to Ceylon. Returning to Belgium in 1964, he then worked at the artists’ café La Chèvre Folle in Ostend, where he organized fortnightly exhibitions and occasional cultural events. For the following few years he worked fall and winter for a Belgian travel agency in Manchester and Liverpool, England, while spending summers as a tour guide in Italy, Central Europe, and Turkey. In 1967 he began working as a guide, lecturer, and interpreter for Penn Overland Tours, based in Hereford, England. In these roles he accompanied groups of British, American, Australian, and New Zealand tourists on luxury overland trips from London to Bombay, and later London to Calcutta—excursions that took two and a half months to complete. He made twenty-six overland journeys in the course of fourteen years, during which time he also organized and introduced local musical concerts in Turkey, Pakistan, India, and later Nepal. He likewise accompanied two month-long trips through Iran with specialized international groups as well as a number of overland trips through the USSR and Central Europe. In between his travels, Hubert wrote and presented radio scenarios for Belgian Radio and Television (including work on a prize-winning documentary on Nepal) and for the cultural program Woord. The experiences of hospitality and cultural translation that Hubert accumulated on his many journeys supported his work as a teacher and guide; he was always ready with a hint of how one might better navigate the awkward state of being a stranger in a new place. With the birth of his daughter Cascia in 1972, Hubert’s travels paused for several years as he took a position tutoring at the Royal Atheneum in Ostend. He also worked as an art critic with a coastal weekly and lectured with concert tours of Nepalese classical musicians, cārya dancers, and the musicologist and performer Michel Dumont.In 1975, during extended layovers between India journeys, Hubert began a two-year period of training in Buddhist Chinese at the University of Louvain with pioneering Indologist and scholar of Buddhist Studies Étienne Lamotte. He recalled being particularly moved by the Buddhist teachings on impermanence he encountered in his initial studies. He also worked as a bronze-caster apprentice and assistant to sculptor—and student of Lamotte—Roland Monteyne. He then resumed his overland journeying full time, leading trips from London to Kathmandu. These included annual three-month layovers in Nepal, where he began studying Tibetan and Sanskrit with local tutors. He was a participant in the first conference of the Seminar of Young Tibetologists held in Zürich in 1977. In 1980 he settled permanently in Kathmandu, where he continued his private studies for seven years. During this period he also taught French at the Alliance Française and briefly served as secretary to the Consul at the French Embassy in Kathmandu. It was during the mid 1980s that Hubert began teaching American college students as a lecturer and fieldwork consultant for the Nepal Studies program of the School for International Training (then known as the Experiment in International Living) based in Kathmandu. In 1987 he was tasked with organizing SIT’s inaugural Tibetan Studies program, which ran in the fall of that year. Hubert served as the program’s academic director, a position he would hold for more than a decade. Under his direction, the Tibetan Studies program famously became SIT’s most nomadic college semester abroad, regularly traveling through India, Nepal, Bhutan, as well as western, central, and eastern Tibet. It was also during this period that Hubert produced some of his most memorable writings in the form of academic primers, assignments, and examinations. In 1999 Hubert stepped down as academic director to become the program’s senior faculty advisor, a position he held until his death.Hubert taught and lectured across Europe and the United States in positions that included visiting lecturer at Middlebury College and Numata visiting faculty member at the University of Vienna. Hubert’s writing covers broad swaths of geographical and historical territory, although he paid particular attention to the Buddhist traditions of Tibet and Nepal. His research focused on the transmission history of the Vajrabhairava tantras, traditional narrative accounts of the Swayambhū Purāṇa, the sacred geography of the Kathmandu Valley (his 2017 lecture on this topic, “Ambrosia for the Ears of Snowlanders,” is recorded here), and the biographies of the eleventh-century Bengali monk Atiśa. His style of presenting lectures was rooted in his work as a musician and lover of music—he prepared meticulously to be sure his talks were rhythmic, precise, and yet had an element of the spontaneous. One of his preferred mediums was the long-form book review, which incorporated new scholarship and original translations with erudite critiques of subjects ranging from Buddhist philosophy to art history and Tibetan music. His final publication, a forthcoming essay on an episode contained in the correspondence of the seventeenth-century Jesuit António de Andrade (translated by Michael Sweet and Leonard Zwilling in 2017), uses close readings of Tibetan historical sources and paintings to complicate and contextualize Andrade’s account of his mission to Tibet. This exemplifies the spirit and method of his review essays, which demonstrate his deep admiration of published scholarship through a meticulous consideration of the work and its sources, often leading to new discoveries. In addition to Hubert’s published work, some of his most endearing and enduring writing has appeared informally, in the guise of photocopied packets intended for his students. Each new semester of the SIT Tibetan Studies program would traditionally begin with what is technically called “The Academic Director’s Introduction and Welcome Letter.” These documents would be mailed out to students several weeks prior to the program, and for most other programs they were intended to inform incoming participants of the basic travel itinerary, required readings, and how many pairs of socks to pack. The Tibetan Studies welcome letter began as a humble, one-page handwritten note, impeccably penned in Hubert’s unmistakable hand. Hubert’s welcome letters evolved over the years, and they eventually morphed into collections of three or four original essays covering all manner of subjects related to Tibetan Studies, initial hints at how to approach cultural field studies, new research, and experiential education, as well as anecdotes from the previous semester illustrating major triumphs and minor disasters. The welcome letters became increasingly elaborate and in later years regularly reached fifty pages or more in length. The welcome letter for fall 1991, for example, included chapters titled “Scholarly Fever” and “The Field and the Armchair, and not ‘Stage-Struck’ in either.” By spring 1997, the welcome letter included original pieces of scholarship and translation, with a chapter on “The Case of the Royal Testaments” that presented innovative readings of the Maṇi bka’ ’bum. Only one element was missing from the welcome letter, a lacuna corrected in that same text of spring 1997, as noted by its title: Tibetan Studies Tales: An Academic Directors’ Welcome Letter—With Many Footnotes.Hubert was adamant that even college students on a study-abroad program could undertake original and creative research, either for assignments in Dharamsala, in Kathmandu or the hilly regions of Nepal, or during independent-study projects themselves, which became the capstone of the semester. Expectations were high, sometimes seemingly impossibly high, but with just the right amount of background information and encouragement, the results were often triumphs. Hubert regularly spent the months between semesters, or during the summer, producing another kind of SIT literature: the “assignment text.” These nearly always included extensive original translations of Tibetan materials and often extended background essays as well. They would usually end with a series of questions that would serve as the basis for a team research project. For fall 1994 there was “Cultural Neo-Colonialism in the Himalayas: The Politics of Enforced Religious Conversion”; later there was the assignment on the famous translator Rwa Lotsāwa called “The Melodious Drumsound All-Pervading: The Life and Complete Liberation of Majestic Lord Rwa Lotsāwa, the Yogin-Translator of Rwa, Mighty Lord in Magic Intervention.” There were extended translations of traditional pilgrimage guides for the Kathmandu Valley, including texts by the Fourth Khamtrul and the Sixth Zhamar hierarchs, for assignments where teams of students would race around the valley rim looking for an elusive footprint in stone or a guesthouse long in ruins that marked the turnoff of an old pilgrim’s trail. For many students these assignments were the first foray into field work methods, and Hubert's careful guidance helped them approach collaborations with local experts ethically and with deep respect for diverse forms of knowledge. One semester there was a project titled “The Mystery of the IV Brother Images, ’Phags pa mched bzhi” focused on the famous set of statues in Tibet and Nepal and based on new Tibetan materials that had only just come to light. Another examined the “The Tibetan World ‘Translated’ in Western Comics.” Finally, there was a classic of the genre that examined the creative nonconformity of the Bhutanese mad yogin Drugpa Kunleg in light of the American iconoclast composer and musician Frank Zappa: “A Dose of Drugpa Kunleg for the post–1984 Era: Prolegomena to a Review Article of the Real Frank Zappa Book.”Frank Zappa was, indeed, another of Hubert’s inspirations and his aforementioned review included the following passage: “If there’s one thing I do admire in FZ, it is precisely these ‘highest standards’ and utmost professional thoroughness that does not allow for any sloppiness (in the name of artistic freedom or spontaneous freedom)…. At the same time, each concert is really different, [and]…appears as a completely spontaneous event.” Hubert’s life as a scholar, teacher, and mentor was a consummate illustration of this highest ideal. Hubert is survived by his wife Nazneen Zafar; his daughter Cascia Decleer, son-in-law Diarmuid Conaty, and grandsons Keanu and Kiran Conaty; his sister Annie Decleer and brother-in-law Patrick van Calenbergh; his brother Misjel Decleer and sister-in-law Martine Thomaere; his stepmother Agnès Decleer, and half-brother Luc Decleer. A traditional cremation ceremony at the Bijeśvarī Vajrayoginī temple near Swayambhū is planned for Friday.Benjamin Bogin, Andrew Quintman, and Dominique TownsendPortions of this biographical sketch draw on the introduction to [[Himalayan Passages]]: Newar and Tibetan Studies in Honor of Hubert Decleer (Wisdom Publications, 2014))
Elliot Sperling + ('''Obituary: Elliot Sperling (1951-2017)'' … '''Obituary: Elliot Sperling (1951-2017)''' by Tenzin Dorjee. (''HIMALAYA''. Volume 37, Number 1, pp 149-150)Professor Elliot Sperling’s death was a colossal tragedy byevery measure. He was only 66 years old, and he exudedlife, health, and purpose—the antithesis of death. Afterretiring from a long professorship at Indiana Universityin 2015, where he was director of the Tibetan Studiesprogram at the department of Central Eurasian Studies,Sperling moved back to his native New York. He bought anapartment in Jackson Heights, where he converted everywall into meticulously arranged bookshelves—only thewindows were spared. He was clearly looking forward toa busy retirement, living in what was basically a librarypretending to be an apartment.Sperling was the world’s foremost authority on historicalSino-Tibetan relations. For his landmark work “on the political, religious, cultural, and economic relations betweenTibet and China from the fourteenth through seventeenthcenturies,” he was awarded a MacArthur genius grant atthe age of 33.1He accumulated a compact but enduring body of work that defined and shaped Tibetan studiesover the last three decades. No less important, he was alsoa phenomenal teacher, storyteller, entertainer, whiskey connoisseur (he delighted in teaching us how to enjoythe peaty Scotch whiskies), and a passionate advocate forTibetan and Uyghur causes.Through his seminal writings on Tibet’s relations withChina during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, hebecame arguably the first historian to use both Chineselanguage archives and Tibetan language sources extensively, bringing to light the separation and independence thatcharacterized the relationship between the two nations.Until he came along, most Western academics viewedTibet through Chinese eyes, largely because they couldnot access Tibetan sources. Sperling, fluent in Tibetan aswell as Chinese, upended the old Sino-centric narrativeand transformed the field. Roberto Vitali, who organized afestschrift for Sperling in 2014, writes that Sperling’s work“will stay as milestones” in Tibetan studies.2 His writingshave become so central to the field that any scholar whowrites a paper about historical Sino-Tibetan relations cannot do so without paying homage to Sperling’s work. He is,so to speak, the Hegel of Sino-Tibetan history.One can imagine the joy many of us felt when ProfessorSperling chose to make his home in Jackson Heights, thesecond (if unofficial) capital of the exile Tibetan world—after Dharamsala, India. We saw him at demonstrations atthe Chinese consulate, art openings at Tibet House, poetrynights at Little Tibet restaurant, and sometimes at dinnerparties in the neighborhood. At every gathering, he heldcourt as the intellectual life of the party. His friends andstudents bombarded him with questions on topics rangingfrom art to politics to linguistics, for his erudition wasnot limited to history alone. Unfailingly generous andeloquent, he supplied the most intriguing, insightful andexhaustive answers to every question. Each conversationwith him was a scholarly seminar. Among the circle ofTibetan activists and artists living in New York City,Sperling quickly fell into a sort of second professorship, anunderground tenure without the trappings of university.We weren’t about to let him retire so easily.Some of Professor Sperling’s most influential early worksinclude: The 5th Karma-pa and Some Aspects of the RelationshipBetween Tibet and the Early Ming (1980); The 1413 MingEmbassy to Tsong-ka-pa and the Arrival of Byams-chen chos-rjeShakya ye-shes at the Ming Court (1982); Did the Early MingEmperors Attempt to Implement a ‘Divide and Rule’ Policy inTibet? (1983); and The Ho Clan of Ho-chou: A Tibetan Family inService to the Yuan and Ming Dynasties (1990) among others.One of my personal favorites in his corpus is The 5th Karmapa and Some Aspects of the Relationship Between Tibet and theEarly Ming. In this text, Sperling argues that in the earlyyears following the collapse of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in1367, the Ming rulers of China adopted a non-expansionistforeign policy, displaying greater interest in drawing clearboundaries to keep the ‘barbarians’ out of China thanin expanding its boundaries to encroach into non-Mingterritories. Ming China was initially conceived more asan inward-looking state than an outward-looking empire,partly in critique of the ruthless expansionism of theirpredecessors, the Mongol Yuan rulers. In fact, Sperlingquotes from the very proclamation carried by the firstmission that Ming Taitsu, or the Hongwu Emperor, sent toTibet::Formerly, the hu people [i.e. the Mongols] usurped:authority in China. For over a hundred years caps:and sandals were in reversed positions. Of all:hearts, which did not give rise to anger? In recent:years, the hu rulers lost hold of the government….:Your Tibetan state is located in the western lands.:China is now united, but I am afraid that you have:still not heard about this. Therefore this proclamation [is sent].3 Sperling goes on to write that this “first mission is acknowledged by Chinese records to have met with nosuccess,” and that necessitated the dispatching of a secondmission.4In ''Did the Early Ming Emperors Attempt to Implement a “Divide and Rule” Policy in Tibet?''5Sperling defies decades of conventional wisdom with a bold argument when he writes::The Chinese court was never, in fact, able to mount:a military expedition beyond the Sino-Tibetan:frontier regions. This fact becomes strikingly:obvious as one glances through both Tibetan and:Chinese sources for the period in question…. Unable:to protect its embassies or even to retaliate against:attacks on them, China was hardly in a position to:manifest the kind of power needed to implement a:policy of “divide and rule” in Tibet.For many Tibetans who care about seemingly inconsequential details of the murky Sino-Tibetan relations from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, a historical period that has become a domain of highly charged information battles between Dharamsala and Beijing, Sperling’s writings are like a constellation of bright lamps illuminating the tangled web of Sino-Tibetan history. He excavated critical pieces of Tibet’s deep past from the forbidding archives of antiquity, arranged them in a coherent narrative, and virtually placed in our hands several centuries of our own history.Elliot Sperling’s academic stature would have allowedhim to be an ivory tower intellectual. Instead, he choseto be a true ally of the Tibetan people and an unwaveringchampion of Tibetan freedom. While he studied withTaktser Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama’s elder brother, hemaintained lifelong friendships with the people he metin Dharamsala: Tashi Tsering (the preeminent Tibetanhistorian), Jamyang Norbu (the rebel intellectual andaward-winning author), Peter Brown (the ‘AmericanKhampa’ and a brother in the Tibetan struggle). Sperlingjoined many of us in the trenches of activism, alwaysencouraging us to embark on bigger and bolder advocacycampaigns for Tibet. Speaking in his Bronx-accentedTibetan, he told us that if only Tibetans studied our historymore seriously, we would be able to believe that Tibet willbe free again.A sharp and fearless critic of Beijing, Sperling neitherminced his words nor censored his writings under fear ofbeing banned from China. Even when he taught in Beijingfor a semester, where he developed a close friendship withthe Tibetan poet Woeser, he successfully avoided the trapof self-censorship that has neutered so many scholars in our time.6While railing against Beijing’s atrocities in Tibet, he managed to be critical of Dharamsala’s excessively conciliatory stance toward Beijing.7His provocative critiques of the Tibetan leadership sometimes made us uncomfortable, but that was exactly the impact he was seeking as a teacher who cared deeply about Tibet: to awaken and educate us by pushing us into our discomfort zone. “Having a teacher like Sperling was a bit like having access to a genius, a father, and some sort of bodhi all in one,” says Sara Conrad, a doctoral student at Indiana University who studied with Sperling for many years. “A walking encyclopedia, I felt I could learn a lot just being near him—and he took every opportunity to teach me. I benefited learning from him about Tibet and Tibetan of course, but also about parenthood and morality, music and comedy. In terms of academia he told me I must be able to live with myself after I write, and therefore it is always best to be honest.”In recent years, Sperling took up the case of Ilham Tohti,the Uyghur intellectual sentenced to life imprisonmentby Beijing. He played a key role in raising Tohti’s profileas a prisoner of conscience, nominating him for humanrights awards. He took Tohti’s daughter, Jewher, underhis wing and oversaw her wellbeing and education. InJewher’s own words, Elliot Sperling became “like a secondfather” to her. His friendship with Ilahm Tohti and Jewherexemplified the compassion and generosity with which hetreated everyone. Sure, he made his mark in this world as ascholar, but his monumental intellect was matched by hisunbounded kindness, altruism, and humanity.“Professor Sperling was the moral compass of Tibetan studies,” said fellow historian Carole McGranahan at Sperling’s March 11 memorial in New York. His untimely deathhas left an abyss in our hearts and a chasm in the world of Tibetology. Christophe Besuchet, a fellow activist, remarked that it is “as if a whole library had burned down.”Even so, it is worth remembering that Sperling has already done far more than his fair share of good in the world, and he deserves a rest (or a break, if you consider it from a Buddhist perspective). In the course of 66 years, he lived multiple lifetimes—as a taxi driver, hippie, scholar, mentor, activist, father—each one more productive and meaningful than the last. He has engraved his spirit so deeply in the lives of so many of us that, in a way, he is still alive. And while one library has burned down, there are thousands of libraries where his words still live and breathe.''Endnotes'' 1. MacArthur Foundation, <https://www.macfound.org/fellows/236/> (accessed 6 March 2017).2. Roberto Vitali, “For Elliot from a Friend,” InternationalAssociation for Tibetan Studies. Also see Trails of the TibetanTradition: Papers for Elliot Sperling, edited by Roberto Vitali(Amnye Machen Institute: 2014).3. Elliot Sperling, “5th Karmapa and Some Aspects ofthe Relationship Between Tibet and the Early Ming,” inMichael Aris and Aung San Suu Kyi, eds., Tibetans Studiesin Honour of Hugh Richardson, Warminster, 1980 (publishedin translation as Shiboling, “Wushi Gamaba yiji Xizanghe Mingchu de guanxi yaolue,” in Guowai Zangxue yanjiuyiwenji, vol. 2, Lhasa, 1987), pp.279-289.4. Ibid.5. Elliot Sperling, “Divide and Rule Policy in Tibet,” inErnst Steinkellner, ed., Contributions on Tibetan Language,History and Culture. Proceedings of the Csoma de KorosSymposium Held at Velm-Vienna, Austria, 13-19 September1981, Vienna, 1983, pp.339-356.6. See Tsering Woeser, “A Chronicle of Elliot Sperling,”in Trails of the Tibetan Tradition: Papers for Elliot Sperling,Roberto Vitali eds., (published by Amnye Machen Institute,2014).7. He has criticized the Dalai Lama’s ‘Middle WayApproach’ to dealing with China as too conciliatory. Seehis article Self-Delusion, <http://info-buddhism.com/SelfDelusion_Middle-Way-Approach_Dalai-Lama_Exile_CTA_Sperling.html#f1>.'''Tenzin Dorjee''' is a writer, activist, and a researcher at TibetAction Institute. His monograph The Tibetan NonviolentStruggle: A Strategic and Historical Analysis was publishedin 2015 by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.His writings have been published in various forums includingGlobal Post, Courier International, Tibetan Review, TibetTimes, and the CNN blog. He is a regular commentatoron Tibet-related issues for Radio Free Asia, Voice ofAmerica, and Voice of Tibet. He served as the ExecutiveDirector of Students for a Free Tibet from 2009 to 2013.An earlier version of this obituary was published in theHuffington Post <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/remembering-elliot-sperling-personal-reflections-on_b_5899c990e4b0985224db59cb>.t-sperling-personal-reflections-on_b_5899c990e4b0985224db59cb>.)
Sarvajñamitra + (''Sarvajñamitra'' was a famous Buddhist mo … ''Sarvajñamitra'' was a famous Buddhist monk of Kashmir, described by ''Kalhaṇa'' as one 'who set himself as another ''Jina'' (''Buddha'')'. He lived in a monastery, called ''Kayyavihāra'', founded by ''Kayya'', the king of ''Lāta'' owing allegiance to king ''Lalitāditya'' of Kashmir (701–738 A.D.)[31]. Thus, ''Sarvajñamitra'' would appear to have lived in the later half of the 8th century. He was a worshipper of ''Tārā'' and was known for his generousness. ''Tārānātha'' gives the following biographical account of ''Sarvajñamitra'':He was an extra-(marital) son of a king of Kashmir (probably the contemporary of king ''Lalitāditya'' or his predecessor). When still a baby he was carried away by a vulture when his mother had left him on the terrace, herself having gone to pluck flowers. The baby was taken to a peek of Mount ''Gandhola'' in Nalanda. There he was received by some ''Pandits'' under whose protection he grew-up and became a monk well-versed in the ''Piṭakas''. He propitiated the goddess ''Tārā'' by whose favour he received enormous wealth which he distributed among the needy. At last when he had nothing left to donate he left towards the South fearing that he would have to send the suppliants back without giving alms to them which would be against his wishes. On his journey to the South he met an old blind ''brāhmaṇa'' led by his son. He was going to Nalanda to implore aid from ''Sarvajñāmitra'', about whose generosity he had heard a lot.''Sarvajñāmitra'' told him that he was the same person but had exhausted all his wealth. Hearing this the ''brāhmaṇa'' heaved an afflictive sigh with which ''Sarvajñāmitra'' felt boundless compassion for him and decided to get money for him anyhow. While searching for money he found a king named ''Saraṇa'' who was passionately attached to false views. This king wanted to purchase 108 men for offering them to sacrificial fire. He had already procured 107 men and was in search of one more. ''Sarvajñāmitra'' sold himself for the gold equal to the weight of his body. He gave this gold to the ''brāhmaṇa'' who returned happy.''Sarvajñāmitra'' was put in the royal prison. The other prisoners were overpowered by grief seeing that the number was complete and their death was quire [quite?] near. When fire was kindled, they started wailing. Again. the great ''Ācārya'' felt boundless compassion and he earnestly prayed to the goddess ''Tārā''. The goddess flowed a stream of nectar over the fire and people could see rains coming down only on the fire. When the fire was extinguished the place turned to be a lake. Seeing this wonderful event, the king was filled with admiration for the ''Ācārya''. The prisoners were released with rewards.The ''Ācārya'' after the lapse of a long time, wished to be at his birth place. So he prayed to the goddess. He was asked to catch hold of the corner of her clothes and shut the eyes. When he re-opened his eyes he found himself in a beautiful land in front of a magnificent palace. He could not recognise this place and asked the goddess why she had not taken him to Nalanda. She told him that this was his real birth place. He stayed in Kahemir [Kashmir?] and founded a big temple of goddess ''Tārā''. ''Tārānātha'' further states that he was a disciple of ''Süryagupta'' or ''Ravigupta''[32]. The same tradition is found with minor variations in the commentary on the ''Sragdharāstotra'' by ''Jinarakṣita''[33].''Sragdharāstotra'' is a hymn containing 37 verses which ''Sarvajñamitra'' wrote in praise of goddess ''Tārā''. '' 'Sragdharā' '' is an epithet of ''Tārā'' which means 'wearer of the wreath' or 'the garland bringer' and it is also the name of the metre in which the hymn was written. ''Bstan—'gyur'' contains three translations of the text. The hymn, with its commentary and two Tibetan versions, is edited by S. C. Vidyabhusana in ''Bibliotheca'' series, 1908.Besides '' 'Sragdharāstotra' '' other texts attributed to ''Sarvajñamitra'' are all in praise of goddess ''Tārā'', viz., 1. ''Devītarākuvākyādhyesana nāma stotra'' 2. ''Āryatārāsādhanā'', and 3. ''Aṣṭabhayatrānatārosādhanā''[34]. (Kaul, ''Buddhist Savants of Kashmir'', 19–21)ādhanā''[34]. (Kaul, ''Buddhist Savants of Kashmir'', 19–21))
Tilakakalaśa + (''Tilakakalaśa'': ''Tilakakalśa'' or ''Til … ''Tilakakalaśa'': ''Tilakakalśa'' or ''Tilakalaśa'' is known in Tibetan as ''Thig-le bum-pā''. The name is sometimes rendered as ''Bindukalaśa''. He occupied himself mostly in the Mādhyamika philosophy, and composed four hymns. He collaborated with ''Ñi-ma grags'' and ''Blo-ldan śes-rab''.Before going to Tibet, he translated in Kashmir, with ''Ñi-ma grags'' the ''Mādhyamakāvatāra'' of ''Candrakīrti'' and the self-commentary in 3550 [?] ''ślokas''. Together, both re-arranged the translation of the ''Mādhyamakāvatārakārikā'' done by ''Kṛṣṇapāda'' and ''Chul-kḥrims rgyal-pa''. They also translated ''Śrīguḥyasāmājamaṇḍalopāyikāviṃśavidhi'' of ''Nāgabodhi''. The work is attached to the school of the ''Guhyasamāja'' of ''Nāgārjuna''.In collaboration with ''Blo-ldan śes-rab'', ''Tilakakalaśa'' reviewed the interpretation of the ''Śikṣāsamuccaya'' of ''Śāntideva'' done by ''Dānaśīla'', ''Jinamitra'' and ''Ye-śes sde'' during the 9th century. Together they also translated two texts dealing with the ''Prajñāpāramitā'' ('Perfection of Wisdom') in 8000 stanzas. The texts include: ''Āryaprajñāpāramitāsaṃgrahakārikā'' of ''Dignāga'', also known as ''Aṣṭasāhasrikāpinḍārtha'', and its commentary in 540 ''ṣlokas'' by ''Triratnadāsa''. He also translated the following fifteen hymns: 1. The ''Vāgiśvarastotra, 2. The ''Āryamañjuśrīstotra'', 3. The Āryavāgiśvarastotra'', 4. The ''Lokeśvarasiṃhanāda nāma stora [stotra?]'', 5. ''Prajñāpāramitastotra'' 6. ''Acintyastava'', 7. ''Stutyatītastava'', 8. ''Niruttarastava'', 9. ''Āryabhattārakamañjuśrīparmārhastuti'', 10. ''Āryamañjuśrībhattārakakarunāstotra'', 11. ''Aṣṭamahāsthanacaityastotra'', 12. ''Aṣṭamahāsthanacaityastotra'' [Listed 2x in source as nos. 11 and 12] 13. ''Dvādaśakāranayastotra'', 14. ''Vandanāstotra'', and 15. ''Narakoddhāra''. Of these, the first four are attributed to ''Tilakakalaśa'' himself and the rest to ''Nāgārjuna''. (Kaul, ''Buddhist Savants of Kashmir'', 47–48)e, the first four are attributed to ''Tilakakalaśa'' himself and the rest to ''Nāgārjuna''. (Kaul, ''Buddhist Savants of Kashmir'', 47–48))
Yin Shun + ((Master) Yin Shun (印順導師, Yìnshùn Dǎoshī) ( … (Master) Yin Shun (印順導師, Yìnshùn Dǎoshī) (5 April 1906 – 4 June 2005) was a well-known Buddhist monk and scholar in the tradition of Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism. Though he was particularly trained in the Three Treatise school, he was an advocate of the One Vehicle (or Ekayāna) as the ultimate and universal perspective of Buddhahood for all, and as such included all schools of Buddha Dharma, including the Five Vehicles and the Three Vehicles, within the meaning of the Mahāyāna as the One Vehicle. Yin Shun's research helped bring forth the ideal of "Humanistic" (human-realm) Buddhism, a leading mainstream Buddhist philosophy studied and upheld by many practitioners. His work also regenerated the interests in the long-ignored Āgamas among Chinese Buddhist society and his ideas are echoed by Theravadin teacher Bhikkhu Bodhi. As a contemporary master, he was most popularly known as the mentor of Cheng Yen (Pinyin: Zhengyan), the founder of Tzu-Chi Buddhist Foundation, as well as the teacher to several other prominent monastics. Although Master Yin Shun is closely associated with the Tzu-Chi Foundation, he has had a decisive influence on others of the new generation of Buddhist monks such as Sheng-yen of Dharma Drum Mountain and Hsing Yun of Fo Guang Shan, who are active in humanitarian aid, social work, environmentalism and academic research as well. He is considered to be one of the most influential figures of Taiwanese Buddhism, having influenced many of the leading Buddhist figures in modern Taiwan. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_Shun Source Accessed July 10, 2020])ed July 10, 2020]))
Sāgaramegha + ( *Sāgaramegha/Samudramegha (c. eighth cent … *Sāgaramegha/Samudramegha (c. eighth century CE): Authored an extensive commentary on the ''Bodhisattvabhūmi'', titled the ''Yogācārabhūmaubodhisattvabhūmivyākhyā'' (D 4047). This work is a crucial resource for clarifying difficult passages in the root text.ifying difficult passages in the root text. )
Klaus-Dieter Mathes + ( *[http://www.univie.ac.at/cirdis/index.ph … *[http://www.univie.ac.at/cirdis/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78&Itemid=67&lang=en Tibetology at CIRDIS]'''Bio:''':Venerable Yuen Hang Memorial Trust Professor in Buddhist Studies at the University of Hong Kong.Klaus-Dieter Mathes is a professor of Buddhist studies at the University of Hong Kong. His current research deals with exclusivism, inclusivism, and tolerance in Mahāyāna Buddhism. He obtained his Ph.D. from Marburg University in 1994 with a study of the Yogācāra text Dharmadharmatāvibhāga (published in 1996 in the series Indica et Tibetica). From 1993 to 2001 he served as the director of the Nepal Research Centre and the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project in Kathmandu. Before joining the University of Hong Kong in August 2023 he was the head of the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, where with his team he hosted the 2014 conference of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. He has organized and given presentations at many other conferences and symposiums, and has served as the chairman of the board of trustees of the Numata Professional Chair for Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna.His major publications include A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Gö Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga (Wisdom, 2008), A Fine Blend of Mahāmudrā and Madhyamaka: Maitrīpa's Collection of Texts on Non-conceptual Realization (Amanasikāra) (Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2015), and Maitrīpa: India's Yogi of Nondual Bliss (Shambhala, 2021). He is also a regular contributor to the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, and is the co-editor of the Vienna Series for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies.'''Current Ongoing Research:'''*[http://www.univie.ac.at/mahamudra/index.php?article_id=11 Emptiness of Other (gzhan stong) in Tibetan Mahamudra Traditions of the 15th and 16th Centuries]ibetan Mahamudra Traditions of the 15th and 16th Centuries] )
Khenpo Kunga Sherab + (2024 Publication Forthcoming with Khenpo K … 2024 Publication Forthcoming with Khenpo Kunga Sherab: [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Amazing-Treasury-of-the-Sakya-Lineage/Ameshab-Ngakwang-Kunga-Sonam/Amazing-Treasury-of-the-Sakya-Lineage/9781614299196 The Amazing Treasury of the Sakya Lineage: Volume 1]Khenpo Kunga Sherab was born in Lhoka, Tibet, and is a monastic scholar and teacher. He is the author of several studies in Tibetan on Abhidharma and Middle Way philosophy. Khenpo has extensive experience teaching Buddhist meditation and philosophy in various settings, including traditional Tibetan monastic colleges, interfaith institutes, Dharma centers across North America and Asia, and university classrooms. He received his PhD from the University of Toronto. Since 2017, he has served as a Buddhist chaplain in four major prisons in southwestern Ontario, Canada. ([https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Khenpo-Kunga-Sherab/220574952 Source: Simon and Schuster, Accessed July 9, 2024])Before coming to the University of Toronto, Khenpo received a traditional Tibetan Buddhist monastic education and earned the advanced title of Khenpo (abbot) in 2005 from the Dzongsar Institute for Advanced Studies of Buddhist Philosophy and Research in India. He then taught for many years at Dzongsar Institute, India and Zurmang Buddhist College in Sikkim, India. He is the author of several works on Buddhist philosophy in Tibetan. ([https://buddhiststudies.utoronto.ca/khenpo-kunga-sherab/ Source: U Toronto, Accessed July 9, 2024])Source: U Toronto, Accessed July 9, 2024]))
Vibhūticandra + (A 12th to 13th century Indian scholar that … A 12th to 13th century Indian scholar that, like his teacher Śākyaśrībhadra, was active in Tibet. He wrote several works that are preserved in Tibetan translation, including a commentary on the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' in which he is also recorded as the translator.ich he is also recorded as the translator.)
Je Yeshe Gyatso +
Sangpuwa Lodrö Tsungme + (A Kadam scholar from Sangpu Neutok Monastery who was known for his expertise in the Five Treatises of Maitreya. He was a contemporary of both Dölpopa and Butön and a teacher of the Sakya scholar Yakde Paṇchen and the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje.)
Lhopa Kunkhyen Rinchen Pal + (A direct student of Sakya Paṇḍita Kunga Gyaltsen (1182–1251), from whom he received detailed teachings on the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra''. He wrote a commentary on the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' as a synopsis of the teachings he had received from Sakya Paṇḍita.)
Troshul Khenpo Jampal Dorje + (A disciple of Mipam Gyatso and author of a commentary on ''The Beacon of Certainty'' (''Nges shes rin po che'i sgron me'') titled ''Nges shes rin po che'i sgron me'i rnam bshad 'od zer dri med''.)
Śaṅkara + (A highly influential Vedāntic thinker and … A highly influential Vedāntic thinker and exegete. Now credited with the founding of the Advaita Vedānta tradition, he has been promoted by many, particularly in the modern era, as the greatest Hindu philosopher. Nothing is known of his life beyond the hagiographies; these portray him as a brahmin from the small village of Kālati in Kerala who became a saṃnyāsin at the age of seven. According to the tradition, his guru was called Govindapāda and his paramaguru (his teacher's teacher) was Gauḍapāda. (Gauḍapāda was the reputed author of the earliest identifiable Advaita text, the Gauḍapādīya Kārikā, the basis of a commentary attributed to Śaṅkara.) The boy Śaṅkara moved to Vārāṇasī, where he acquired his own pupils, including Padmapāda and Sureśvara. Moving again, to Badrinātha, he composed the earliest surviving commentary on the Brahmasūtras, supposedly while still only twelve years old. Thereafter, he led the life of a peripatetic debater and teacher, before dying at the age of 32 in the Himālayas. During his period of wandering he is supposed to have founded an India-wide network of Advaitin monasteries, each with its associated order of saṃnyāsins, later identified as the Daśanāmis. There is some evidence, however, that these maṭhas may have been established much later in the history of Advaita, and it should be noted that while the Daśanāmis have a markedly Śaiva affiliation, it is likely that Śaṅkara himself was born into a smārta Vaiṣṇava family. Nevertheless, by around the 10th century ce, through the advocacy of his pupils, and various subcommentators, and the critical response of rival schools, Śaṅkara had become established as the major proponent of Advaita, and a large number of works, both philosophical and devotional began to be attributed to him. Most scholars now agree that only a small proportion of these texts should be unreservedly accepted as the work of the 8th-century Śaṅkara. Apart from one independent text, the Upadeśasāhasrī (‘Thousand Teachings’), these are all commentaries (bhāṣyas), namely: the Brahmasūtrabhāṣya (also known as the Śārīrakabhāṣya), bhāṣyas on the Bṛhadāraṅyaka and Taittirīya Upaniṣads, and (probably) the Bhagavadgītā, as well as the commentary on the Gauḍapādīya Kārikā (itself a commentary on the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad). Some scholars also regard commentaries on the other major Upaniṣads (with the possible exception of the Śvetāśvatara) as genuine. ([https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100440958 Source Accessed Mar 4, 2022])803100440958 Source Accessed Mar 4, 2022]))
Chogye Trichen Rinpoche + (A modern Tibetan biography is available on … A modern Tibetan biography is available on [https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=W1KG17214 BDRC W1KG17214 ]: bco brgyad khri chen rin po che'i mdzad rnam mdor bsdus. Edited by Yon tan bzang po (P5949). Kathmandu, Nepal: Sachen International, 2008. His Eminence Chogye Trichen Rinpoche, Ngawang Khyenrab Thupten Lekshe Gyatso, is the most senior Sakya Lama and the head of the Tsar sub-school of Sakya tradition. His Eminence is a renowned tantric master, a dedicated practitioner, an outstanding scholar, an eloquent poet, and embodies the wisdom, spirit and activities of the holy Dharma. His Eminence is a master of masters as most Tibetan Buddhist lineage holders are his disciples. Amongst these disciples are His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, and His Holiness the 41st Sakya Trizin, Ngawang Kunga, and His Eminence is regarded as the definitive authority on Kalacakra Tantra. In addition to His Eminence's stature among Tibetan lamas, the late King Birendra of Nepal awarded His Eminence "Gorkha Dakshin Babu", a tribute which has never been awarded to a Buddhist monk in Nepal before.Born in 1919 in the Tsang province of Central Tibet into the Zhalu Kushang family of the Che clan, a lineage descended from the clear light gods, he was recognized as the reincarnation of the previous Chogye Rinpoche of Nalendra Monastery by the 13th Dalai Lama, Thupten Gyatso. Many auspicious and marveleous signs accompanied His Eminence's birth. His Eminence is the 26th patriarch of Phenpo Nalendra Monastery, North of Lhasa. Founded by Rongton Sheja Kunrig (1367-1449), Nalendra is one of the most important Sakya monasteries in Tibet. Wondrously, each generation of the Kushang family has produced no less than four sons, most of who have served as throne holders of many important monasteries including Nalendra, Zhalu and Ngor.The name "Kushang" meaning 'royal maternal uncle' derived from the fact that many daughters from the family were married to numerous Sakya throne holders, one of whom, Drogon Chagna, was supreme ruler of Tibet, who succeeded Chogyal Phakpa.The name "Chogye" means 'Eighteen' and comes from the time of Khyenrab Choje, the 8th abbot of Nalendra who also belonged to the aristocratic Kushang family. Khyenrab Choje, a great teacher possessing the direct lineage of Kalacakra received from Vajrayogini, was invited to be the abbot of Nalendra by Sakya Trizin Dagchen Lodro Gyaltsen (1444-1495). Khyenrab Choje visited the Emperor of China who was greatly impressed by the tantric scholar from Tibet and bestowed on him 'eighteen' precious gifts. From Khyenrab Choje the lineage of Chogye Rinpoches began.At the age of twelve His Eminence was officially enthroned at the Phenpo Nalendra Monastery. In these early years he studied intensively all the basic liturgies and rituals of Nalendra Monastery. His two main root Gurus were the 4th Zimwog Tulku, Ngawang Tenzin Thrinley Norbu Palzangpo, the other main incarnate lama of Nalendra Monastery, and Dampa Rinpoche Shenphen Nyingpo of Ngor Ewam. From these two great teachers His Eminence recieved all the major and minor teachings of Sakya such as the two Lamdre Traditions, the Greater and Lesser Mahakalas, the Four Tantras, the Thirteen Golden Dharmas, Kalacakra, etc. His Eminence completed extensive studies in all major fields of study taught in Lord Buddha's teachings. His Eminence becomes a master in both Sutrayana and Mantrayana teachings. His Eminence is also a great scholar of literature, poetry, history and Buddhist metaphysics and a highly accomplished poet. ([https://www.yuloling.com/khacho-yulo-ling/spiritual-leaders/his-eminence-chogye-trichen-rinpoche.html Source Accessed June 16, 2020])poche.html Source Accessed June 16, 2020]))
Khenchen Appey Rinpoche + (A more detailed biography is available her … A more detailed biography is available here: https://www.khenpoappey.org/en/khenpo-appey-rinpocheand here: http://internationalbuddhistacademy.org/biography-of-our-founder-khenchen-appey-rinpoche/<big>'''An Introduction to Khenpo Appey Foundation'''</big> Khenpo Appey Foundation (KAF) was established in 2010 to honor the most Venerable Khenchen Appey Rinpoche (1927-2010), an eminent, recognized, and humble Tibetan Buddhist scholar and practitioner who dedicated his life exclusively to the propagation of the Buddhadharma. The foundation was established by Mdm Doreen Goh, a devoted follower and sponsor of Khenchen Appey Rinpoche. Inspired by Khenchen Appey Rinpoche’s vision, KAF is a non-profit organization dedicated to the support and enhancement of Buddhist study and practice. KAF’s primary aim is to extend the Buddha’s wisdom and compassion as widely as possible, in order to benefit all beings.<big>'''Short Biography'''</big> Khenpo Appey was born in Kusé in the kingdom of Dergé in 1927. He studied at Serjong Monastery and later at the Kham-jé shedra at Dzongsar Monastery.At the age of nine he became a monk at Serjong Monastery, where a year later he received his first teachings from Gapa Khenpo Jamgyal, also known as Khenpo Jamyang Gyaltsen.For nine years, from the age of 14 to 23, at Serjong Shedra, Khenpo Appey studied ‘the thirteen classical texts’ based on Khenpo Shenga’s famous annotation commentaries. During his last two years at the shedra he studied with Khenpo Dragyab Lodrö who later became the fifth khenpo at Dzongsar Shedra and wrote a commentary on the ninth chapter of the Bodhicharyavatara. After his nine years of intensive study at Serjong Shedra, Khenpo Appey went to the shedra at Dzongsar Monastery, where he was able to continue his studies under Khenpo Dragyab Lodrö for another year. He also studied with Dezhung Ajam Rinpoche.He went to see Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö in Sikkim in 1957. He then returned to Tibet and spent time at Ngor Monastery, but left in 1959 when Tibet was lost. He went to see Jamyang Khyentse who was ill in Sikkim. After Jamyang Khyentse passed away, in accordance with his final wishes, he began to teach Sogyal Rinpoche, giving him instruction on the Bodhicharyavatara in the Palace Monastery in the presence of Jamyang Khyentse's kudung.Later, while Sogyal Rinpoche was attending school in Kalimpong, Khenpo Appey spent one or two years in retreat in a small village in Sikkim. He was later requested to tutor Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche. For this purpose, he founded the Sakya College in Barlow Ganj, Mussoorie, on 19th December 1972, the anniversary of Sakya Pandita. In the first year, there were only seven students. Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche studied there for five years. From 1972 to 1985, Khenpo Appey worked full time to look after the college and was responsible for teachings the classes, supervising the administration and raising funds.In 2001 he established the International Buddhist Academy in Boudhanath, Nepal. He passed away in Nepal on Tuesday 28th December, 2010.Source: [http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Khenpo_Appey Rigpawiki]10. Source: [http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Khenpo_Appey Rigpawiki])
William LaFleur + (A native of Patterson, New Jersey, LaFleur … A native of Patterson, New Jersey, LaFleur received his BA from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He earned two master’s degrees, one in comparative literature from the University of Michigan and another in the history of religions from the University of Chicago. He also completed his doctoral work at the University of Chicago, where he studied with Joseph Kitagawa and Mircea Eliade. After completing his PhD in 1973, LaFleur taught at Princeton University; University of California, Los Angeles; Sophia University, Tokyo; and University of Pennsylvania, where he was the E. Dale Saunders Professor of Japanese Studies. LaFleur was a groundbreaking figure in the interdisciplinary study of Buddhism and culture in Japan and trained two generations of graduate students in these fields. His seminal work ''The Karma of Words: Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan'' (University of California Press, 1986) broke away from a traditional focus on specific Buddhist figures and lineages and instead approached Buddhism as the “cognitive map” by which medieval Japanese of all Buddhist schools and social levels made sense of their world. He also uncovered an intimate relation between the Japanese Buddhist episteme and medieval literary arts. The innovative studies now emerging from a generation of younger scholars working at the intersections of Buddhism and literature owe much to LaFleur’s influence.A scholar of far-reaching interests and expertise, LaFleur refused to be confined by any single research area, historical period, or method of approach. In addition to his work on Buddhist cosmology and the “mind” of medieval Japan, he was a gifted translator and interpreter of poetry and published two volumes on the medieval monk-poet Saigyō. He was deeply interested in Zen, especially as a resource for contemporary thought. He wrote and edited several books and essays, introducing to Western readers the work of the thirteenth century Zen master Dōgen, the Kyoto-school figure Masao Abé, and the twentieth century philosopher and cultural historian Watsuji Tetsurō. In 1989, he became the first non-Japanese to win the Watsuji Tetsurō Cultural Prize.LaFleur’s ''Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan'' (Princeton University Press, 1994) expanded his earlier attention to Buddhist notions of the body and catalyzed his growing interest in comparative public philosophy and social ethics. In his later career, while continuing to study medieval Japanese religion and literature, he produced pioneering studies of Japanese bioethics, highlighting contrasts with Western approaches to such issues as abortion, organ transplants, and medical definitions of death. Altogether, he wrote or edited nine books. He left several other projects still in progress; some of which will be published posthumously. ([http://rsnonline.org/index7696.html?option=com_content Source Accessed Jan 16, 2020])com_content Source Accessed Jan 16, 2020]))
The Fourth Shechen Gyaltsap Gyurme Pema Namgyal + (A remarkable master who lived at the end o … A remarkable master who lived at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. He wrote ''The Great Medicine That Conquers Clinging to the Notion of Reality'' (''Byang chub kyi sems bsgom pa'i rim pa bdag 'dzin 'joms pa'i sman chen''). He was a disciple of the greatest luminaries of the nineteenth century, including Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye, and Lama Mipam Rinpoche.trul Lodrö Thaye, and Lama Mipam Rinpoche.)
Chisa Lodrö Gyatso + (A renowned scholar born in Chisa in the Am … A renowned scholar born in Chisa in the Amdo Rebgong region. A student of Dzong Ngon Lodoe Tshang, Tsang Geshe Tshang, Zhwamar Pandita, Jampa Lobsang, Dzoge Lobsang Gyatsho, Horchen Yeshe Gyatsho, etc. He was an important holder of Tsongkhapa's transmission of the Whisper Lineage (''snyan rgyud''). His primary students were Tulku Jamyang Thinle Wangpo, Dzongkar Jigme Sherab Dagpa, Tulku Jigme Thinle Lhundup, Nangso Kukey, and Khaso Chogtrul.Lhundup, Nangso Kukey, and Khaso Chogtrul.)
Nicolas Sihlé + (A social anthropologist by training (PhD P … A social anthropologist by training (PhD Paris-Nanterre University 2001), Nicolas Sihlé first taught at the Department of anthropology at the University of Virginia (USA) from 2002 to 2010, before joining the Centre for Himalayan Studies. He is a specialist of Tibetan society and religion, and of Buddhist societies more generally. His work focuses in particular on religious specialists called tantrists (''ngakpa''), key figures of the non-monastic side of Tibetan Buddhism, generally characterized by their practice of tantric rituals involving occasionally strong ritual power and even ritual violence, as in violent exorcisms. He has carried out extended fieldwork in the Mustang district (northern Nepal) as well as in the Repkong district in northeast Tibet (Amdo/Qinghai), but also shorter periods of research in Ladakh (northern India), Dolpo (NW Nepal), Nyemo (central Tibet), and Bhutan.His first book, based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in culturally Tibetan areas in the north of Nepal, appeared in 2013, under the title ''Rituels bouddhiques de pouvoir et de violence : La figure du tantriste tibétain'' [Buddhist rituals of power and violence: The figure of the Tibetan tantrist]. It analyzed the striking features of this type of Buddhist specialist: a highly ritualistic orientation (with a strong magical component); the practice of tantric rituals involving strong ritual power and even ritual violence (which shows here, comparatively speaking, quite a paradoxical centrality in a Buddhist context); the association between ritual legitimacy and power on the one hand and hereditary lineage on the other; and the relative absence of references to renunciation. The analysis of the monk vs. tantrist duality is more broadly relevant for thinking about religious fields that are organized around values such as ritual power/violence vs. ritual/ethical purity. This work has also involved thinking about written texts (such as a local corpus of manual rituals) as objects in need of a fully ethnographic analysis that takes into account their materiality, their partaking in a social and political economy, but also their particular status, at the juncture between a local universe of meanings and practices and a wider (e.g., Buddhist or Tibetan) cultural world.His current major research project focuses on the large communities of Buddhist and Bönpo tantrists of the Repkong district in northeast Tibet (Chinese Qinghai province), where is has been conducting fieldwork since 2003. The focus is here (i) on very large-scale collective rituals and their place, among others, in the constitution of supra-local collectivities and the negotiation of identities, as well as (ii) on the vicissitudes of the religious sphere, and in particular of ritual, in the context of the transformations of the moral, intellectual, social and political universe of post-Mao Amdo.These projects all contribute to a comparative anthropology of Buddhism—a major emphasis in his research activity. He is thus involved for instance in the coordination of a network of scholars (with several years of workshops and seminars) engaging in the comparative anthropology of Buddhism. In this context, he has co-edited a special issue on the Buddhist gift (''Religion Compass'' 2015).He is also the main editor of the collective research blog ''The Himalayas and Beyond'' (http://himalayas.hypotheses.org/). ([https://himalaya.cnrs.fr/spip3/spip.php?article135&lang=en Source Accessed Nov 14, 2023])135&lang=en Source Accessed Nov 14, 2023]))
James R. Ware + (A specialist in the study of pre-Tang Budd … A specialist in the study of pre-Tang Buddhism and Daoism, James Ware was the first student to receive a Ph.D. at Harvard in the field of Chinese studies. He completed his dissertation in 1932, on the representation of Buddhism in the historical chronicle of the Wei dynasty known as the Weishu. He then taught courses in the Chinese language and Chinese history at Harvard, and was, together with Serge Elisséeff, one of the founding faculty members of the Department of Far Eastern Languages. In this capacity, he supervised the Chinese language program for much of the 1930s and 40s.Much of the material for Ware’s early studies was drawn from the Weishu. He wrote on problems relating to the Toba rulers of the Wei, the history of Buddhism and Daoism in the Northern Dynasties, and the textual history of the ''Fanwang jing'' and other scriptures from the Buddhist canon. In the same years, he also published selected translations from several Buddhist sutras. He worked together with Serge Eliseeff to establish the ''Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies'' in 1936, and contributed numerous articles and book reviews to the journal over the course of the next decade. He also developed a series of Chinese language textbooks and wrote on aspects of modern Chinese linguistics.In the latter years of his career, Ware turned his attention his attention to translating, primarily for a non-specialist audience. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he published selections from the Analects, Zhuangzi, and Mencius. His final significant work was a complete translation of Ge Hong’s fourth century ''Baopuzi'' (1967). ([https://ealc.fas.harvard.edu/james-ware Source Accessed July 28, 2021])james-ware Source Accessed July 28, 2021]))
Tsangnakpa Tsöndru Senge + (A student of Chapa Chökyi Senge, Nyangdren … A student of Chapa Chökyi Senge, Nyangdrenpa Chökyi Yeshe, and Khamo Zeupa. A teacher of Drotön Dudtsi Drak and Madunpa. Famed scholar of the Sakya/Kadam tradition; most closely connected with the Narthang school. He authored commentaries on the ''Śikṣāsamuccaya'', ''Bodhicaryavatara'', and an dbu ma'i bstan bcos (treatise on the Middle Way). ([https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:P2259 Source Accessed Feb 8, 2023])ow/bdr:P2259 Source Accessed Feb 8, 2023]))
Pari Lobzang Rapsal + (A well known scholar of the Dge lugs tradi … A well known scholar of the Dge lugs tradition from Bla brang bkra' shis 'khil in Amdo. The place of his birth was Dpa' ri. He was a teacher of the 13th Dalai Lama and a close friend of the Zhwa dmar pa. He famously criticized Mipam Rinpoche's commentary to the ninth chapter of the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'', ''The Ketaka Gem'' (''Nor bu ke ta ka''). ''The Ketaka Gem'' (''Nor bu ke ta ka'').)