Terrone, A.
Full Name[edit]
Antonio Terrone
Affiliation[edit]
Northwestern University
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Religious Studies
Office: Crowe Hall, 1860 Campus Drive Rd., 4-133
Phone: (847) 467-1368
Email: a-terrone@northwestern.edu
Office hours: By appointment (Winter & Spring 2010)
Education[edit]
MA - Napoli University (Istituto Universitario "L'Orientale," Italy), 1997
PhD - Leiden University in the Netherlands, 2010
Dissertation: Bya rog prog zhu: The Raven Crest. The Life and Teachings of Bde chen 'od gsal rdo rje Treasure Revealer of Contemporary Tibet.
Other Information[edit]
Antonio Terrone specializes in Chinese, Tibetan, and Himalayan religions and cultures with a focus on Tibetan Buddhism. His present work centers on rituals and practice within noncelibate Buddhist Tantric communities of present-day Tibet in the People's Republic of China. He received his M.A. degree from the Department of Asian Studies of the Oriental Institute of Napoli University (Istituto Universitario "L'Orientale," Italy) in 1997 with a major in Chinese and Tibetan studies and a minor in Japanese studies and received his doctoral degree (February 2010) in Tibetan Buddhism from Leiden University in the Netherlands. He joins Northwestern University as Visiting Assistant Professor after completing a one-year position as "scholar in residence" at Gene Smith's Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center in New York. Additionally, he taught at the Eugene Lang College of the New School for Liberal Arts in New York where he offered courses in Tibetan language and seminars on Asian cultures and religions including Buddhism, Asian Shamanism, and Himalayan cultures.
He has done extensive fieldwork in China, Tibet, India, and Nepal studying Tibetan Buddhism and researching the Tibetan Buddhist revelation tradition (gter ma) in contemporary Tibet. His research interests include Buddhist Tantric ritual, philosophy, and praxis, religion in contemporary Tibet, religion and politics in the People's Republic of China, Buddhist revelation movements in Tibet, and the interface between Tibetan and Chinese religious traditions. His doctoral dissertation entitled "Bya rog prog zhu: The Raven Crest. The Life and Teachings of Bde chen 'od gsal rdo rje Treasure Revealer of Contemporary Tibet" is a critical study of the life, works, and activities of a present-day Buddhist visionary of Kham in Eastern Tibet. Based on textual analysis of a selection of his revealed spiritual texts and his autobiography as well as on ethnographic research conducted in his religious community, this study analyzes the career of a religious professional and charismatic leader that took place outside the Buddhist monastic environment. It also shows how some contemporary Tantric visionaries have galvanized the revival of Buddhist gatherings in Eastern Tibet after the end of the Cultural Revolution thus contributing to the redistribution of traditional religious knowledge and training among both Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist devotees.
His recent publications include "Tibetan Buddhism Beyond the Monastery: Revelation and Identity in rNying ma Communities of Present-day Kham," in Monica Esposito (ed.), Images of Tibet in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Paris, École Française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO), Coll. «Études thématiques» (22.2), 2008 and Buddhism Beyond the Monastery: Tantric Practices and their Performers in Tibet and the Himalayas (Brill, 2009), co-edited with Sarah Jacoby.
His teaching interests include Tibetan Religions, Buddhism and Politics in the Modern Era, Religions and Cultures of the Himalayas, Hinduism, and East Asian Religions.