Schaeffer, K.

FirstName / namefirst	Kurtis
LastName / namelast	Schaeffer
namemiddle	R.
bio	Kurtis R. Schaeffer received an M.A. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Washington in 1995, a Ph.D. in Tibetan and South Asian Religions from Harvard in 2000 and is now is the Frances Myers Ball Professor of Religion and the Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He is a student of Buddhist history and culture, with a special interest in the spiritual literature of Tibet and the Himalayas. He is the author or editor of nine books, including the largest anthology of Tibetan literature in English and, most recently, a translation of the life of the Buddha. Schaeffer co-directs the half-century old Tibetan Buddhist studies graduate program at the University of Virginia and, with Martien Halvorson-Taylor, directs the Global Religion Lab at UVA. His books include The Life of the Buddha (2015), Sources of Tibetan Tradition (2013), The Tibetan History Reader (2013), The Culture of the Book in Tibet (2009), An Early Tibetan Catalogue of Buddhist Literature (2009), Dreaming the Great Brahmin, and Himalayan Hermitess (2004). (Source Accessed April 17, 2018)
associatedwebsite	http://www.as.ua.edu/rel/schaeffer.html; http://religiousstudies.as.virginia.edu/schaeffer-kurtis
languageprimary	English
languagetranslation	Tibetan
languagetarget	English
affiliation	University of Virginia
phduniversity	Harvard University
education	2000 Ph.D. Tibetan and South Asian Religions Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies Harvard University, Cambridge MA Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp 1995 M.A. Asian Languages and Literatures University of Washington, Seattle, WA Advisor: Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp 1988 B.A. Religious Studies Lewis & Clark College, Portland OR
IsInGyatsa	No
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• Academia.edu
• See: The Tibet Center

Vita

Employment

Associate Professor 2005 to Present
Department of Religious Studies
University of Virginia

Associate Professor 2000 to 2005
Department of Religious Studies
University of Alabama

Education

2000
Ph.D. Tibetan and South Asian Religions
Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies
Harvard University, Cambridge MA
Advisor: Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp
Dissertation:

1995
M.A. Asian Languages and Literatures
Department of Asian Languages and Literature
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Advisor: Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp
M. A. Thesis:

1988
B.A. Religious Studies
Department of Religious Studies
Lewis & Clark College, Portland OR

Recent Fellowships

2007 through 2009. Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH), The University of Virginia. Project: Mapping the Dalai Lamas.

Publications

More Publications

Books

• The Life of the Buddha by Tenzin Chögyel. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Kurtis R. Schaeffer. New York, NY: Penguin Classics, 2015

• Sources of Tibetan Tradition. Ed. by Kurtis R. Schaeffer, Gray Tuttle, and Matthew T. Kapstein. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2013. A volume in the Sources of Asian Civilization series.

• The Tibetan History Reader. Ed. by Kurtis R. Schaeffer and Gray Tuttle. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2013.

• The Culture of the Book in Tibet. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2009.

• An Early Tibetan Catalogue of Buddhist Literature: The Bstan pa rgyas pa nyi ma’i ‘od zer of Bcom ldan ral gri. Kurtis R. Schaeffer and Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Oriental Series, 2009. HOS64.

• Dreaming the Great Brahmin: Tibetan Traditions of the Buddhist Poet-Saint Saraha. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

• Himalayan Hermitess: The Life of a Tibetan Buddhist Nun. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Edited Books

• E. Gene Smith. Among Tibetan Texts: History and Literature of the Tibetan Plateau. Kurtis R. Schaeffer, editor. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001.

• Power, Politics and the Reinvention of Tradition in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Tibet: Proceedings of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Xth Seminar, Oxford University, 2003. Kurtis R. Schaeffer and Bryan J. Cuevas, Editors. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2006.

Articles

• "Dying Like Milarepa: Death Accounts in a Tibetan Hagiographic Tradition. In The Buddhist Dead: Practices, Discourses, Representations. Bryan J. Cuevas and Jaqueline I. Stone, Eds. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Kuroda Studies in East Asian Buddhism No. 20. pp. 208-233.

• "Death, Prognosis, and the Physician's Reputation in Tibet." In Heroes and Saints: The Moment of Death in Cross-cultural Perspectives. Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara, Eds. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. pp. 159-172.

• "Ritual, Festival, and Authority under the Fifth Dalai Lama." Power, Politics and the Reinvention of Tradition in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Tibet: Proceedings of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Xth Seminar, Oxford University, 2003. Kurtis R. Schaeffer and Bryan J. Cuevas, Editors. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2006. pp. 187-202.

• "Future Directions in Modern Tibetan Studies: Religion/History." The CSSR (Council of Societies for the Study of Religion) Bulletin 35/1 (2006): 17-19.

• “The Autobiography of a Medieval Tibetan Hermitess.” In Women in Tibet: Past and Present. Janet Gyatso and Hanna Havnevik, Eds. Columbia University Press, New York. 2005.

• "The Fifth Dalai Lama." In The Dalai Lamas: A Visual History. Martin Brauen, Ed. Chicago, Serindia Publications, 2005. pp. 64-91.

• “A Letter to Editors of the Buddhist Canon in 14th Century Tibet.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 124/2 (2004): 1-17.

• "Professing Buddhism in Alabama." The CSSR (Council of Societies for the Study of Religion) Bulletin 33/2 (2004): 43-46.

• “Textual Scholarship, Medical Tradition, and Mahayana Buddhist Ideals in Tibet.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 31/5-6 (2003): 621-641.

• “The Attainment of Immortality: From Nathas in India to Buddhists in Tibet." Journal of Indian Philosophy 30/6 (2003). pp. 515-533.

• “The Religious Career of Vairocanavajra—A Twelfth-Century Indian Buddhist Master from Daksina Kosala.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 28/4 (2000). pp. 361-384.

• “Printing the Words of the Master: Tibetan Editorial Practice in the Collected Works of 'Jam dbyangs bzhad pa'i rdo rje I (1648-1721).” Acta Orientalia 60 (1999). pp. 159-177.